What Is Somatic Symptom Disorder?

Abstract

Somatic symptom disorder is a disease in which a patient presents with physical symptoms to a physician but no physical problem is seen on examination or laboratory testing. In this type of disease, the physician considers the cause of the patient’s problems not physical but mental. Somatic symptom disorder can affect the quality of life.This disorder has received a lot of attention from the physicians, psychiatrist and even medical services centers around the world. Recurrent visits of these cases in outpatient clinics or hospitals and the vicious cycle of unnecessary investigations that reinforce "sick role" and somatic complaints, cause many problems for the patients, as well as the physicians and health services. The aim of this study was to investigate the symptoms, epidemiology and etiology of somatic symptom disorder.