Somatization disorder is characterized by the presence of multiple chronic distressing somatic symptoms that are not medically explained. Patients with this condition tend to be highly anxious about their symptoms, even in the face of evidence that their condition is not medically serious. In the draft of the upcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), this condition...

CONTEXT Somatoform disorders are an important determinant of medical care utilization, but their independent effect on utilization is difficult to determine because somatizing patients frequently have psychiatric and medical comorbidity. OBJECTIVES To assess the extent of the overlap of somatization with other psychiatric disorders; to compare the medical utilization of somatizing and nonsoma...

OBJECTIVE Given the association between severe childhood trauma, adult somatization and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (cPTSD), the purpose of the present paper was to assess this syndrome and its clinical correlates in patients with somatization disorder (SD). METHODS A total of 28 patients (82% women, mean age = 41.7+/-10.1 years) meeting DSM-IV criteria for SD as confirmed by the S...

Rediagnosing 103 ICD-9 Hysteria cases on DSM-III, the authors found Conversion Disorder and Atypical Dissociative Disorder to be the most common diagnosis. Somatization Disorder was diagnosed only in 8.7 per ant of cases. Twenty-nine per cent cases received double diagnoses. Limitations of using DSM-III on Hysteria patients are mentioned and a suggestion is made to include a new category of 'Si...

Thirty patients diagnosed as Conversion Disorder and Somatization Disorder on DSM-III were investigated using IBQ and EPI. The patients differed with the controls on all the 7 factors of illness dimensions. They scored higher on neuroticism and low on extroversion.

The authors studied interventions recommended by consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatrists when they diagnosed somatoform disorder prospectively in a cohort of 4,401 consecutive inpatients referred to the C-L psychiatry service of a general teaching hospital, using standardized MICRO-CARES methodology. A DSM-III-R somatoform disorder was diagnosed in 2.9%, somatoform pain disorder in 1.4%, conve...