A mental disorder characterized by an extreme focus on physical symptoms that causes significant distress and/or interferes with daily functioning.
Imagine you're driving a car and the check engine light comes on. You take it to several mechanics, but they can't find anything wrong. Despite this, you're still convinced there's a serious problem with the engine. This is similar to somatic symptom disorder, where individuals are excessively worried about perceived physical ailments despite medical reassurances.
Psychosomatic: Refers to physical symptoms that manifest from mental factors like stress or anxiety.
Hypochondriasis: An obsessive worry about having a serious illness based on misinterpretation of bodily symptoms.
Illness Anxiety Disorder: Characterized by excessive worry about having a serious illness despite having no or only mild symptoms.
What kind of symptom is characteristic of Somatic Symptom Disorder?
Using psychoanalytic theory as reference point, what would likely be considered the root cause behind somatic symptom disorder?
According to Cognitive theories, why may a person develop a somatic symptom disorder?
How has the understanding of Somatic Symptom Disorder evolved over time?
In case of a patient dealing with somatic symptom disorder who shows no improvement through pharmacological treatments what could be an alternative treatment method?
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