Somatic Symptom Disorder

Somatic Symptom Disorder

What it looks like

A person with somatic symptom disorder has extreme and almost constant worries and fears about physical symptoms, such as chronic pain (the most common symptom), fatigue, or other symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting. Other symptoms that cause worry may include low back pain, excessive stomach gas, abdominal pain, food intolerances, and diarrhea. The individual may report feeling pain all over rather than in one specific place. These symptoms are usually generated by the person’s underlying anxiety, depression or general emotional distress. Note that these symptoms are real and not imagined or made up. The person with somatic symptom disorder usually fixates on their symptoms and sometimes worries the symptoms are a sign of a terrible illness like cancer, a brain tumor, or another severe medical problem.

Other common symptoms include frequent visits to the doctor for which no medical problem is identified, and imaging and laboratory tests that reveal no problem areas. Despite this, the person with this problem worries that common physical symptoms indicate a severe medical problem. For example, everyone experiences headaches and stomach aches sometimes, which may be caused by many different factors, but they are usually temporary and simply go away. However, the person with somatic symptom disorder worries that these symptoms indicate a very serious problem. The person with this disorder may constantly check the body for any potential abnormalities that may indicate a medical problem.

Sometimes doctors do miss diagnoses that can cause chronic pain and fatigue, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, or another illness, and these disorders should be ruled out before the doctor considers a diagnosis of somatic symptom disorder.

Experts report that up to 7 percent of the general population may have somatic symptom disorder, and women are about ten times more likely than men to suffer from this condition.

Untreated Somatic Symptom Disorder

It is important to treat Somatic Symptom Disorder. If untreated the disorder can cause people to undergo repeated and needless tests and examinations to address chronic physical symptoms with often little to no relief. However, when somatic symptom disorder is the underlying problem and it is treated, the physical symptoms will often abate, and quality of life improves.

Outlook

While living with Somatic Symptom Disorder can present unique obstacles, treatment can dramatically improve one’s quality of life. The majority of people who are properly diagnosed and treated with evidence based treatments observe transformative results, even after years of suffering from their symptoms.

In good company

Some prominent people reportedly have Somatic Symptom Disorder, such as actor Charlie Sheen or the late singer Michael Jackson.

The current thinking on what causes Somatic Symptom Disorder

No one knows for sure what causes Somatic Symptom Disorder, but most experts believe that there may be a genetic influence as well as environmental factors that are present. People who have experienced traumatic events are significantly more prone to developing somatic symptom disorder. As a result of the trauma, their body may still be “holding on” to the stress and expressing emotional distress physically.

In addition, people who are at risk of developing medical problems due to family history or for another reason may be more likely to develop somatic symptom disorder. Sometimes people who have an already-identified medical problem develop somatic symptoms because they become unduly worried about their entire body or other illnesses, not just the previously diagnosed medical problem.