Chapter 7: Somatic Symptom and Dissociative Disorders

Somatic symptoms

physical or bodily symptoms

Somatic symptom disorder

a condition involving a pattern of distressing thoughts regarding the seriousness of one’s physical symptoms combined with excessive time and concern devoted to worrying about these symptoms

Illness anxiety disorder

persistent health anxiety and/or concern that one has an undetected physical illness, even when the person has only mild or no physical symptoms

Functional neurological symptom/conversion disorder

a condition involving sensory or motor impairment suggestive of a neurological disorder but with no underlying medical cause

Factitious disorders

a condition in which a person deliberately induces or simulates symptoms of physical or mental illness with no apparent incentive other than attention

Factitious disorder imposed on another/munchausen syndrome by proxy

a pattern of falsification or production of physical or psychological symptoms in another individual

Factitious disorder imposed on self/munchausen syndrome

symptoms of illness are deliberately induced, simulated, or exaggerated, with no apparent external incentive

Malingering

feigning illness for an external purpose (ex insurance settlement)

Dissociative disorders

a group of disorders, including dissociative amnesia, dissociative identity disorder, and depersonalization/derealization disorder, all of which involve some sort of dissociation, or separation, of a part of the person’s consciousness, memory, or identity

Dissociative amnesia

a psychologically based sudden loss of important personal information or recall of events

Dissociative amnesia with fugue

an episode involving complete loss of memory of one’s life and identity, unexpected travel to a new location, or assumption of a new identity

depersonalization/derealization disorder DDD

a dissociative condition characterized by feelings of unreality concerning the self and the environment, most common dissociative disorder

Dissociative identity disorder DID

a condition in which two or more relatively independent personality states

Iatrogenic disorder

a condition unintentionally produced by a therapists’ actions and treatment strategies

Localized amnesia

lack of memory for a specific event or events

Possession

the replacement of a person’s sense of personal identity with a supernatural spirit or power

Psychogenic

originating from psychological causes

Repressed memory

a memory of a traumatic event that has been repressed and is, therefore, unavailable for recall

Selective amnesia

an inability to remember certain details of an event

Somatic symptom and related disorders

a broad grouping of psychological disorders that involve physical symptoms or anxiety over illness, including somatic symptom disorder, illness anxiety disorder, functional neurological symptom disorder, and factitious disorder

Somatic symptom disorder with predominant pain

a condition involving excessive anxiety or persistent concerns over severe or lingering pain

Systematized amnesia

loss of memory for certain categories of information