When people complain of aches, pains and worries about the possibility of developing a terrible health problem, for example, cancer (in the absence of a physical explanation), we tend to think that they have hypochondriasis. Unfortunately, we can also pejoratively say that they are “hypochondriacs”. The term is associated with a lot of stainand often people who suffer from this disease are ignored by medical professionals and others in our society.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th The (DSM-5) edition published by the American Psychiatric Association in 2013 removed the term hypochondriasis and recognized that the symptoms grouped under the heading “hypochondriasis” could be better served by an updated diagnostic conceptualization. Two new terms introduced in DSM-5 are somatic symptom disorder and anxiety disorder.
Somatic Symptom Disorder Vs. Anxiety disorder
According to the DSM-5, somatic symptom disorder refers to one or more persistent physical symptoms, such as aches or pains, that cause distress or interfere with a person’s daily life. A patient is often given this symptom after seeing their doctor, who then realizes that the patient is too preoccupied with their symptoms. Patients with this symptom are likely to worry disproportionately about their symptoms.
Illness anxiety disorder differs in that the physical symptoms are less obvious, while anxiety or preoccupation with having or acquiring a serious medical condition is the chief complaint. Patients with disease anxiety disorder are more likely to avoid screening to avoid serious medical problems, such as overscreening for breast lumps or skin cancer, or to avoid screening or seeing doctors because they are too afraid.
In simple terms, somatic symptom disorder is a diagnosis that refers to people who have excessive somatic (physical) symptoms, and illness anxiety disorder is a diagnosis that refers to people who worry excessively about illness. It’s important to remember that everyone experiences anxiety and distress due to physical symptoms or illness and disease, but people with these disorders are so anxious and distressed that it has a significant impact on their lives – which means they need help.
Different treatment plans for different needs
Somatic symptom disorder and anxiety disorder may be just labels, but they bring a fresh perspective to an old problem. They recognize the chief complaints of their many sufferers and offer hope in the form of potential improvements in our understanding and treatment of these disorders.
For example, when it comes to recognizing a patient as having a somatic symptom disorder, it is helpful to know that those with the disorder are overly distressed and preoccupied with their symptoms. This comes with the understanding that they can use specific psychological strategies to cope or evaluate why they are experiencing their symptoms in this overwhelming way. For patients with anxiety disorders, it helps to know that they are worried about the disease in the same way as people who worry about heights or spiders. Psychological strategies may include patient involvement to face their fears going to the doctor, or limiting visits to the doctor and dealing with the anxiety that comes with not being able to trust the doctor.
Although some scientists believe that these two disorders may be part of the same disorder (hypochondriasis) and that it is not useful to separate them, the distinction between somatic symptom disorder and anxiety disorder solves the problems of ambiguity in both diagnosis and treatment.
