Somatizing patients show psychological and emotional distress as physical symptoms. Somatization can be presented in various forms ranging from indistinguishable somatic complaints and distress to full-blown conversion disorders involving paralysis or blindness. Conversion disorders are not common. (Kroenke K,) Somatization disorder was previously called Briquet's syndrome, after the French physician who first recognized it. Somatoform disorders are characterized by the presence of physical symptoms that cannot be explained by a medical condition or another mental illness. (Kroenke K,) Therefore, physicians often judge that such symptoms result from psychological conflicts or distress. For instance, in conversion disorder, also called hysteria, a person may experience loss of sight, deafness, or seizures, but a physician cannot find anything wrong with the individual. (Kroenke K,)
Patients that are prone to neurotic disorders are more likely to develop somatic complaints when financial gain or litigation is imminent. Theories about somatization in adults have emphasized the development of symptoms as a result of repressed anger developed through life experiences. The association between these findings and somatoform disorder is not clear, and the literature on the effect of litigation has been inconsistent. (Z.J. Lipowski) People with another somatoform disorder, hypochondriasis, constantly fear that they will develop a serious disease and misinterpret minor physical symptoms as evidence of illness. (Z.J. Lipowski)
The word somatoform comes from the Greek word soma, meaning body. The distinguishing characteristic of this disorder is a group or pattern of symptoms in several different organ systems of the patient's body that cannot be accounted for by medical illness. (Z.J. Lipowski) Patients may be in a situation that presents few options other than communicating distress through illness. Symptoms are typically supported by allies in the family or among physicians........
