Somatic symptom disorder
Somatic symptoms causing distress/impairment, with excessive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors about them.
How it presents
distressing somatic symptoms + disproportionate thoughts/anxiety/time/energy devoted to them ≥6 months; symptoms may or may not be medically explained
Tell it apart from
- Illness anxiety disorder
- Conversion disorder
- Factitious disorder
- Malingering
Treatment reasoning
Regular scheduled visits with one provider, CBT, validation without repeated unnecessary testing; focus on function not cure.