| Somatoform disorder | |
| Classification and external resources | |
| ICD-10 | F45. |
|---|---|
| ICD-9 | 300.8 |
| DiseasesDB | 1645 |
| eMedicine | med/3527 |
| MeSH | D013001 |
Somatoform disorder (also known as Briquet's syndrome) is a psychological disorder characterized by physical symptoms that mimic disease or injury for which there is no identifiable physical cause[1] or physical symptoms such as pain, nausea, depression, and dizziness. Somatoform disorder is a condition in which the physical pain and symptoms a person feels are related to psychological factors. These symptoms can not be traced to a specific physical cause. In people who have Somatoform disorder, medical test results are either normal or don't explain the person's symptoms. People who have this disorder may undergo several medical evaluations and tests to be sure that they do not have an illness related to a physical cause or central lesion. Patients with this disorder often become very worried about their health because the doctors are unable to find a cause for their health problems. Their symptoms are similar to the symptoms of other illnesses and may last for several years. People who have Somatoform disorder are not faking their symptoms. The pain that they feel is real, and they feel what they say they are feeling. A person faking their symptoms may have factitious disorder (an unknown psychological cause for making oneself sick) or malingering (making oneself sick for personal or monetary gain; i.e. disability, insurance, etc). This is not at all related to the Somatoform Disorder, however.
A diagnosis of a Somatoform disorder implies that psychological factors are a large contributor to the symptoms' onset, severity and duration. It is important to note that Somatoform disorders are not the result of conscious malingering or factitious disorders.
Contents |
Recognized Somatoform disorders
The Somatoform disorders recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association are:
- Conversion disorder
- Somatization disorder
- Hypochondriasis
- Body dysmorphic disorder
- Pain disorder
- Undifferentiated somatoform disorder - only one unexplained symptom is required for at least 6 months.
Included among these disorders are false pregnancy, psychogenic urinary retention, and mass psychogenic illness (so-called mass hysteria).
- Somatoform disorder NOS
Proposed somatoform disorders
Additional proposed somatoform disorders are:
- Abridged somatization disorder[2] - at least 4 unexplained somatic complaints in men and 6 in women
- Multisomatoform disorder[3] - at least 3 unexplained somatic complaints from the PRIME-MD scale for at least 2 years of active symptoms
These disorders have been proposed because the recognized somatoform disorders are either too restrictive or too broad. In a study of 119 primary care patients, the following prevalences were found:[4]
- Somatization disorder - 1%
- Abridged somatization disorder - 6%
- Multisomatoform disorder - 24%
- Undifferentiated somatoform disorder - 79%
See also
References
- ^ Somatoform Disorders
- ^ Escobar JI, Rubio-Stipec M, Canino G, Karno M (1989). "Somatic symptom index (SSI): a new and abridged somatization construct. Prevalence and epidemiological correlates in two large community samples". J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 177 (3): 140–6. PMID 2918297.
- ^ Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, deGruy FV, et al. (1997). "Multisomatoform disorder. An alternative to undifferentiated somatoform disorder for the somatizing patient in primary care". Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 54 (4): 352–8. PMID 9107152.
- ^ Lynch DJ, McGrady A, Nagel R, Zsembik C (1999). Somatization in Family Practice: Comparing 5 Methods of Classification. 1. pp. 85–89. PMID 15014690.
External links
 This mental health-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
