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Clinical Features | Specific Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders | Etiology | Treatment | References

Excerpt

Somatic symptom and related disorders comprise a heterogeneous group of psychiatric illnesses characterized by prominent physical symptoms or complaints that are associated with significant distress and impairment. The conceptualization of these disorders under the category of somatoform disorders in DSM-IV/DSM-IV-TR) (American Psychiatric Association 1994, 2000) required that these somatic presentations lack objective organic causes. This latter requirement has been deleted in DSM-5, largely because somatic symptoms often do have related medical conditions (American Psychiatric Association 2013). Even when such associations have not been established, the assumption that they are present has often led to patients being labeled in pejorative ways, as if they are faking symptoms or somehow responsible for their own suffering.

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