Somatic Symptoms and Dissociative Disorders

Somatic symptoms disorder

• chronic physical symptoms like pain, weakness, and shortness of breath

• excessive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to the symptoms

• extreme worry about symptoms and their possible consequences

• difficulty being reassures

• high sensitivity to medication adverse effects

Somatic symptom disorder theories

• genetic and

DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria for Somatic Symptom Disorder

Illness anxiety disorder

• Worry about developing or having a
  serious illness but does not always
  experience severe physical symptoms

• When experiencing physical
  complaints the person becomes very
  alarmed and seeks immediate medical
  care

DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria for Illness anxiety disorder

Cognitive theories of somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety

Dysfunctional beliefs about serious illnesses and paying too much attention to physical changes

Psychodynamic therapies for symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder

provide insight into emotions that link to physical symptoms

Behavioral therapies for symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder

Learn and eliminate reinforcements that individuals get from symptoms

Cognitive therapies for symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder

Help to learn thought patterns about physical symptoms and challenge these to avoid catastrophizing

cultural belief systems for symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder

helps better engage clients in therapy to work on their symptoms

Conversion disorder

Dramatic type of somatic symptom disorder that causes patients to lose neurologic functioning in a certain part of the body with no medical cause

DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for conversion disorder or functional neurological symptom disorder

Psychoanalytic theory of conversion disorder

disorder is a result of the transfer of the psychic energy attached to repressed emotions

Primary gain of conversion disorder

conversion symptom reduces anxiety/discomfort

Secondary gain of conversion disorder

medical and personal attention from others

Behavioral theory of conversion disorder

Alleviates stress by removing individual from the environment

Biological theory of conversion disorder

impaired connectivity between areas of the brain
that regulate anxiety

Psychoanalytic therapy for conversion disorder

Helps express painful emotions or memories that are linked to
symptoms

Behavioral therapy for conversion disorder

Relieves the person’s anxiety centered on the initial trauma that caused symptoms and reduces benefits received from symptoms

Factitious Disorder

Deliberate faking of an illness to gain medical attention

Malingering

faking a symptom or a disorder in order to avoid an unwanted situation

Dissociative Identity Disorder

having more than one distinct identity or personality state taking control of the individuals’ behavior, “alters”