Somatization
Encyclopedia
Somatization is currently defined as "a tendency to experience and communicate somatic
distress in response to psychosocial stress and to seek medical help for it".
This can be, but not always, related to a psychological condition:
The American Psychiatric Association
(APA) has classified somatoform disorder
s in the DSM-IV and the World Health Organization
(WHO) have classified these in the ICD-10
. Both classification systems use similar criteria. Most current practitioners will use one over the other, though in cases of borderline diagnoses, both systems may be referred to. In spite of extensive research over the last 20 years, researchers are still perplexed by somatoform
emotions into somatic symptoms. Sigmund Freud
's famous case study of Anna O.
featured a woman who suffered from numerous physical symptoms, which Freud believed were the result of repressed grief over her father's illness.
Somatic
The term somatic means 'of the body',, relating to the body. In medicine, somatic illness is bodily, not mental, illness. The term is often used in biology to refer to the cells of the body in contrast to the germ line cells which usually give rise to the gametes...
distress in response to psychosocial stress and to seek medical help for it".
This can be, but not always, related to a psychological condition:
- Affective disorders (anxiety and depression)
- Somatoform disorderSomatoform disorderIn psychology, a somatoform disorder is a mental disorder characterized by physical symptoms that suggest physical illness or injury - symptoms that cannot be explained fully by a general medical condition, direct effect of a substance, or attributable to another mental disorder . The symptoms that...
s
The American Psychiatric Association
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
(APA) has classified somatoform disorder
Somatoform disorder
In psychology, a somatoform disorder is a mental disorder characterized by physical symptoms that suggest physical illness or injury - symptoms that cannot be explained fully by a general medical condition, direct effect of a substance, or attributable to another mental disorder . The symptoms that...
s in the DSM-IV and the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
(WHO) have classified these in the ICD-10
ICD-10
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision is a medical classification list for the coding of diseases, signs and symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or diseases, as maintained by the...
. Both classification systems use similar criteria. Most current practitioners will use one over the other, though in cases of borderline diagnoses, both systems may be referred to. In spite of extensive research over the last 20 years, researchers are still perplexed by somatoform
Ego defense
In psychodynamic theory, somatization is conceptualized as an ego defense, the unconscious rechannelling of repressedPsychological repression
Psychological repression, also psychic repression or simply repression, is the psychological attempt by an individual to repel one's own desires and impulses towards pleasurable instincts by excluding the desire from one's consciousness and holding or subduing it in the unconscious...
emotions into somatic symptoms. Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
's famous case study of Anna O.
Anna O.
Anna O. was the pseudonym of a patient of Josef Breuer, who published her case study in his book Studies on Hysteria, written in collaboration with Sigmund Freud. Her real name was Bertha Pappenheim , an Austrian-Jewish feminist and the founder of the Jüdischer Frauenbund .Anna O...
featured a woman who suffered from numerous physical symptoms, which Freud believed were the result of repressed grief over her father's illness.
See also
- Amplification (psychology)Amplification (psychology)Amplification is to amplify physical symptoms based on psychological factors such as anxiety or depression: "somatosensory amplification refers to the tendency to experience somatic sensation as intense, noxious, and disturbing...
- Medically unexplained physical symptomsMedically unexplained physical symptomsMedically unexplained physical symptoms or medically unexplained symptoms are patient symptoms for which the treating physician, other healthcare providers, and research scientists have found no medical cause...
- Somatization disorderSomatization disorderSomatization disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis applied to patients who persistently complain of varied physical symptoms that have no identifiable physical origin...