Well this is doctor grande today the question is what is the difference between?
somatic symptom disorder an
illness anxiety disorder
Now these two disorders used to be represented by just one disorder
in older editions of the DSM the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
This disorder was referred to as hypochondriasis
You may have heard the term
Hypochondriac that was derived from the the word hypochondriasis
So we had this disorder hypochondriasis and now
those symptom presentations would be divided mostly between
somatic symptom disorder and
illness anxiety disorder
With most of the cases that would have been considered hypochondriasis
moving over to somatic symptom disorder
So let's talk about these two disorders with somatic symptom disorder an individual has somatic complaints
Meaning they have symptoms that they can feel that are distressing to them
Oftentimes the symptom is pain, but it doesn't have to be a pain related symptom. It can be another symptom like fatigue
somatic symptom disorder
causes a significant disruption in individuals life and there can be
excessive thoughts feelings and behaviors around
The somatic symptoms we see this expressed in a few different ways there can be thoughts about the seriousness of the symptoms
there can be high anxiety about health or symptoms or
excessive time and energy invested
Into concerns about health or symptoms. We can see one two or all three of those
Somatic symptom disorder has two specifiers and three severity specifiers the first specifier is with predominantly pain
So this is when the somatic symptoms are mostly pain related the next specifier is persistent
So this is where you have severe symptoms
Or severe impairment or a long duration, which would be more than six months
There are also three severity specifiers mild moderate and severe when considering the criteria for somatic symptom disorder
We would also think about as a differential diagnosis. Potentially illness anxiety disorder and
Illness anxiety disorder has a lot of similarities. There's a preoccupation
With acquiring or having a serious medical condition and high anxiety about that and also
Excessive checking in terms of to see if the symptoms are present
searching criteria for medical conditions on the Internet
events like that or avoidance
the main difference here with illness anxiety disorder is
That there are no somatic symptoms, or there are mild somatic symptoms, so it's somatic symptom disorder
You have the somatic symptoms with illness anxiety disorder you don't or they're mild
There are two specifiers used with illness anxiety disorder care seeking type and care avoidant type
So in care seeking type some of this type of illness anxiety disorder
would go to physicians sometimes more than one physician visit quite often have test run and
Usually everything comes back negative meaning. There's no reason to believe that there is a serious medical condition that
Cycle typically repeats
care avoidant type will avoid
contact with
the medical community
they'll avoid going to the physician so both somatic symptom disorder and
Illness anxiety disorder really are talking about the same thing
with the main difference being the somatic symptoms I
Hope you found this description of the difference between somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder to be interesting. Thanks for watching