Somatization disorder (also Briquet's disorder or, in antiquity, hysteria) is a psychiatric diagnosis applied to patients who chronically and persistently complain of varied physical symptoms that have no identifiable physical origin. One common general etiological explanation is that internal psychological conflicts are unconsciously expressed as physical signs. Patients with Somatization Disorder will typically visit many doctors trying to get ...
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Somatization disorder (also Briquet's disorder or, in antiquity, hysteria) is a psychiatric diagnosis applied to patients who chronically and persistently complain of varied physical symptoms that have no identifiable physical origin. One common general etiological explanation is that internal psychological conflicts are unconsciously expressed as physical signs. Patients with Somatization Disorder will typically visit many doctors trying to get the treatment they think they need. However, it must be remembered that this behaviour would also occur if the patient had a genuine physical condition that previous physicians had failed to diagnose. The first step for a physician must be to take the patient's claims seriously and consider if their symptoms match any other known condition.
Somatization disorder is a somatoform disorder. The DSM-IV establishes the following five criteria for the diagnosis of this disorder:
Such symptoms cannot be related to any medical condition. The symptoms...
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