Somatoform Disorders
These are a broad group of illnesses that has bodily signs and symptoms as a major component. These disorders are due to a complex interaction of mind and body to produce symptoms similar to medical or neurological illness.
The routine physical examination, investigations reveals near-normal findings. At the same time, a significant psychosocial stressor would be evident upon the exploration that can be connected to the onset and maintenance of the symptoms.
- Somatization disorder: characterized by multiple somatic complaints involving many organ systems, that cannot be explained based on physical and lab investigations. The doctor shopping is so annoying to the family & the physician & both will be confused at what to do?
| Example: patients reports to a physician with a set of complaints from head to toe, such as headache, chest pain, abdomen pain, pain in feet, giddiness, fainting, nausea, bloating sensation in stomach, blurred vision, ringing in ears, difficulty in swallowing, erectile dysfunction, excessive menstrual bleeding. |
2.Hypochondriasis: preoccupation and beliefs about specific diseases. This is usually seen in lonely elderly people. Even if the physician tells he is normal, they don’t believe and switch to the next consultant.
Example: a patient may have pain in the abdomen and always feel or believe that it is due to stomach cancer that he might temporally accept when reassured by the physician or surgeon about the negative results.
3. Pain disorder: characterized by pain on one site and significantly exacerbated by psychological factors. Because of their above disorders, patients are laughter at or scolded for putting the burden on the family, expenses etc., this will exaggerate their symptoms.
The truth is they should not be blamed for no fault of them. The symptoms are crying for help as non-verbal communication. If you interact with them, they will come out of lots of depressive symptoms, stress that they are undergoing etc. these people will benefit by antidepressants, individual counselling, family counselling. Elders should be motivated to socialize, visit parks, temples & gatherings to distract themselves.