Skip to main content

Somatic Symptom (Somatization) Disorder

William G. Elder, PhD Reviewed 05/2023
 


BASICS

DESCRIPTION

  • Somatic symptom disorders (SSD) are a pattern of one or more somatic symptoms recurring or persisting for >6 months that are distressing or result in significant disruption of dai...

DIAGNOSIS

  • Determining that a somatic symptom is medically unexplained is unreliable, and it is inappropriate to diagnose a mental disorder solely because a medical diagnosis is not demonstrated. Rely ...

TREATMENT

GENERAL MEASURES

  • The goal of treatment is to help the person learn to control the symptoms.

  • It is not helpful to tell patients that their symptoms are imaginary. Enhanced or structured care as...

ONGOING CARE

FOLLOW-UP RECOMMENDATIONS

Patients should have regularly scheduled follow-up with a primary care doctor, psychiatrist, and/or therapist. 

PATIENT EDUCATION

Encourage interventions that decre...

REFERENCES

1
Kim S, Hong J, Min K, et al. Brain functional connectivity in patients with somatic symptom disorder. Psychosom Med. 2019;(3):313-318.
2
Henningsen P. Management of somatic symptom disorder...

ADDITIONAL READING

  • Elder WG. Personality Disorders. In: South-Paul J, Matheny SC, Lewis EL (eds.). Current Diagnosis and Treatment in Family Medicine. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Educ...

CODES

ICD10

  • F45.9 Somatoform disorder, unspecified

  • F45.20 Hypochondriacal disorder, unspecified

  • F45.22 Body dysmorphic disorder

  • F45.29 Other hypochondriacal disorders

  • F45.41 Pain disorder exclusively relat...

CLINICAL PEARLS

  • Diagnosis is based on a pattern of symptoms rather than an absence of medical explanation.

  • A clue is accumulation of several diagnoses with >13 letters (e.g., chronic fatigue syndrom...

Subscribe to Access Full Content

Sign Up for a 10-Day Free Trial

Sign up for a 10-day FREE Trial now and receive full access to all content.

×