Speaker A
Somatic symptom disorder, which used to be called somatization or somatoform disorder, involves having physical symptoms that aren't explained by any known physical or mental disorder.
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Speaker A
In other words, symptoms that can't be explained. That said, individuals aren't faking the symptoms.
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These symptoms are real and often made worse by the fact that they can't be scientifically proven.
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And this is pretty different from situations where an individual with a factitious disorder might fake an illness or injury in order to get attention.
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The diagnosis requires that individuals experience some set of unexplained physical or somatic symptoms for at least six months.
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The symptoms experienced by individuals with this disorder, though, can be incredibly varied, everything from pain to gastrointestinal problems to sexual symptoms.
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And although the somatic symptoms are chronic, the exact location, kind, and severity of the symptoms typically changes over time.
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The one symptom that does often persist over time is pain, and because it's persistent and has no clear underlying cause, it can be particularly hard to treat.
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Somatic symptom disorder often causes cognitive symptoms as well.
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And these include persistent thoughts and feelings about their symptoms, usually a lot of worry and anxiety.
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And sometimes even catastrophic thoughts about death.
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More often than not, it's these cognitive symptoms in response to the physical symptoms, more than the physical symptoms themselves.
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That become a basis for this diagnosis.
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In fact, clinicians rate the severity of somatic symptom disorder based on patient experience with these cognitive symptoms, not the physical ones.
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The condition's considered mild if there's only one cognitive symptom, like ruminating a lot on the symptoms.
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It'd be considered moderate if there are two or more cognitive symptoms, like rumination as well as anxiety.
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And it'd be considered severe if there are two or more cognitive symptoms, as well as multiple physical symptoms or one severe symptom, like severe pain.
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These cognitive and physical symptoms often disrupt an individual's daily life, as well as their relationships.
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Unfortunately, the diagnosis can be tricky and confusing, given that the symptoms shift over time and there's no clear underlying scientific explanation.
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Historically, it was thought that somatic symptom disorder was the result of a person having too much psychological stress.
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And that excess stress bubbled over and led to bodily symptoms.
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A current theory, though, is that individuals with this disorder are extremely sensitive to changes in their bodies.
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And that common experiences like indigestion might be amplified in these individuals.
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One everyday example of this would be how different individuals might perceive the same amount of spiciness very differently.
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For some people, it's tasty.
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And for other people, the exact same amount of spice is perceived as pain.
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Now, treatment of somatic symptom disorders is aimed at reducing the cognitive symptoms.
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And this is often done through cognitive behavioral therapy.
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The goal here is to encourage individuals to engage in behaviors they think are limited because of their physical symptoms.
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In order to show them what they're able to do.
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All right, as a quick recap.
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Somatic symptom disorder involves physical symptoms that can't be scientifically explained by any known physical or mental disorder.
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And the most common one is pain.
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And these physical symptoms often lead to cognitive symptoms, like rumination and anxiety.
Speaker B
What's up, guys, I just wanted to give a big special thanks and shout out to Nurse Nicole for collaborating on this video with us.
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Bye.
