Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders: Treatment

Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders is a category new to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), published in 2013. It redefines the somatoform disorders from earlier editions of the DSM (e.g., DSM-IV). The DSM-5 category includes somatic symptom disorder, illness anxiety disorder, conversion disorder, psychological factors affecting other medical conditions (PFAMC), and factitious disorder. The central feature of these disorders is somatic symptoms for which medical, rather than psychiatric, treatment is often sought. Typically, these patients overuse medical services, derive little benefit from treatment, and experience significant impairment, often lasting many years. Because standard medical care has been relatively unsuccessful in treating somatic symptom and related disorders, alternative treatments have been developed.

No controlled clinical trials have been conducted on somatic ...

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