Somatic symptom disorder

A mental disorder involving distressing physical symptoms and excessive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors related to them. The symptoms may or may not have a recognized medical explanation.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: A diagnostic classification manual published by the American Psychiatric Association. Its current criteria define the disorder by symptom-related distress and excessive responses, not by unexplained symptoms alone.
Somatization disorder: A former diagnosis involving a long history of multiple physical complaints without sufficient medical explanation. It was replaced in DSM-5 by a broader diagnosis that does not require medically unexplained symptoms.
Primary care: Frontline health care that provides ongoing, comprehensive assessment and treatment. A consistent primary-care clinician can coordinate evaluation while limiting fragmented, repetitive investigations.
DSM-5: The fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published in 2013. It introduced this diagnosis and shifted emphasis from unexplained symptoms to excessive symptom-related responses.
Illness anxiety disorder: A mental disorder marked by persistent fear or preoccupation about having or acquiring a serious illness, usually with mild or absent symptoms. It centers on feared illness, whereas this disorder involves distressing physical symptoms.
Conversion disorder: A mental disorder involving altered voluntary motor or sensory function incompatible with recognized neurological disease. It requires specific neurological symptoms, unlike this diagnosis's broader range of distressing physical symptoms.
Psychotherapy: Treatment of mental and emotional difficulties through structured psychological methods. Psychotherapy can help change responses to symptoms and restore everyday functioning.
Medicalization: The process by which human experiences or problems become defined and treated as medical conditions. The diagnosis frames symptom-related distress as a disorder while requiring careful attention to physical health.
Health anxiety: Persistent worry about having or developing a serious illness. Excessive health-related thoughts can contribute to the distress and behaviors assessed in this diagnosis.
Factitious disorder: A disorder involving falsification or induction of illness without an obvious external reward. Unlike this disorder, factitious disorder involves deliberate deception about illness.

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