Somatoform disorders are mental illnesses that cause bodily symptoms, including pain. The symptoms can't be traced back to any physical cause. And they are not the result of substance abuse or another mental illness. People with
somatoform disorders are not faking their symptoms.
Somatization disorder (also Briquet's syndrome) is a mental
disorder characterized by recurring, multiple, and current, clinically significant complaints about somatic symptoms.
A
factitious disorder is a condition in which a person acts as if they have an illness by deliberately producing, feigning, or exaggerating symptoms.
Factitious disorder imposed on another is a condition in which a person deliberately produces, feigns, or exaggerates symptoms in a person in their care.
Connotations of the term "psychosomatic illness"[edit]
Psychosomatic medicine is not to be confused with the demotic and scientifically incorrect use of the phrase "psychosomatic illness," particularly the influence the mind has over physical processes — including the manifestations of
disabilities that are based on intellectual infirmities, rather than actual injuries or physical limitations. These are exemplified by phrases such as the
power of suggestion, the use of "
positive thinking" and concepts like "
mind over matter" to apply to illnesses that are now called
somatoform disorders. Such illness is classified as
neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders by the
World Health Organization in the
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. The field of psychosomatic medicine fell into disrepute clinically due to this incorrect use of this term, which was largely due to the influence of psychoanalytic theory on psychiatric physicians and the inaccurate application by non-specialists in the first part of the 20th century who considered this form of illness to be akin to
malingering, thereby further harming the sufferer.
[11] For this reason, among others, the field of
Behavioral Medicine has taken over much of the remit of Psychosomatic Medicine in practice and there exist large areas of overlap in the scientific research.
Useful definitions for reading this thread.
