What Are the Different Types of Somatoform Disorders?
Somatoform disorders, sometimes referred to as dissociative somatoform disorders, are a group of conditions that appear to manifest physical symptoms of unspecific origin. In other words, they generally cannot be attributed to any specific medical cause that is physical in nature. For this reason, they are collectively considered to be psychiatric conditions. This does not mean to say that these disorders exist only in the patient’s head. On the contrary, there are several different types of somatoform disorders, all of which are very real.
Somatoform disorders, sometimes referred to as dissociative somatoform disorders, are a group of conditions that appear to manifest physical symptoms of unspecific origin. In other words, they generally cannot be attributed to any specific medical cause that is physical in nature. For this reason, they are collectively considered to be psychiatric conditions. This does not mean to say that these disorders exist only in the patient’s head. On the contrary, there are several different types of somatoform disorders, all of which are very real. General pain disorder, for example, is characterized by the presence of pain in one or more areas of the body, or the entire body, without any apparent physical cause. Fibromyalgia was once considered a disorder of this type, although many clinicians now believe that overactive nerves are to blame. By definition, a diagnosis of pain disorder includes psychological factors that may contribute to physical stress.
