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Somatoform disorder

 
Wikipedia: Somatoform disorder
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 mental disorder characterized by physical symptoms that mimic physical disease or injury for which there is no identifiable physical cause[1]. Somatoform disorder is a condition in which the physical symptoms a person feels are due to mental 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.

A diagnosis of a Somatoform disorder implies that mental factors are a large contributor to the symptoms' onset, severity and duration. 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:

Included among these disorders are false pregnancy, psychogenic urinary retention, and mass psychogenic illness (so-called mass hysteria).

  • Somatoform disorder Not Otherwise Specified (NOS)[2]

Proposed somatoform disorders

Additional proposed somatoform disorders are:

  • Abridged somatization disorder[3] - at least 4 unexplained somatic complaints in men and 6 in women
  • Multisomatoform disorder[4] - 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:[5]

  • Somatization disorder - 1%
  • Abridged somatization disorder - 6%
  • Multisomatoform disorder - 24%
  • Undifferentiated somatoform disorder - 79%

See also

References

  1. ^ Somatoform Disorders
  2. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=FjFRlHUdrXIC&lpg=PA444&ots=-RKD-S-cMf&dq=Somatoform%20disorder%20Not%20otherwise%20specified&pg=PA444#v=onepage&q=Somatoform%20disorder%20Not%20otherwise%20specified&f=false
  3. ^ 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. 
  4. ^ 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. 
  5. ^ 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



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