This video describes somatic symptom disorder. When we talk about somatic symptom disorder we're talking about a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). It is in a section called “somatic symptom and related disorders,” so it's in the same section as other disorders like factitious disorder, conversion disorder, and illness anxiety disorder. The first symptom criterion is one or more somatic symptoms that are distressing or cause significant disruption. Criterion B has a few symptom criteria under it and only one of these have to be met. Here we see excessive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors related to somatic symptoms or health concerns and at least one of the following three criteria would have to be met: disproportionate and persistent thoughts about the seriousness of the symptoms, persistently high level of anxiety about health concerns or about the symptoms, and the third is excessive time and energy is devoted to the symptoms or to health concerns. Criterion C is that the state of being symptomatic is persistent. We think of this as usually more than six months. What is interesting here about criterion C is that the somatic complaint can change over the course of these six months. It doesn't have to be the same somatic complaint, but just the general state of being symptomatic would be persistent for six months. Somatic symptom disorder also has a few specifiers: with predominant pain, persistent, mild, moderate, and severe. Some other characteristics we see with somatic symptom disorder include checking behavior, a need for continual reassurance, and avoiding physical activity. There is a variety of comorbidity we see with somatic symptom disorder including a number of medical disorders and mental disorders.

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