Medicine has long recognized the existence of a group of patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms, health anxiety, and overuse of medical services. There has been and continues to be disagreement over the diagnostic criteria and terminology for these types of problems. The Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders category is new to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Their essential feature is physical symptoms leading to significant distress and impairment. The specific disorders within this category are somatic symptom disorder, illness anxiety disorder, conversion disorder, psychological factors affecting other medical conditions (PFAMC), factitious disorder, and two residual categories for presentations of distressing somatic symptoms that fail to meet the diagnostic criteria for any one of the other disorders.

Patients presenting with ...