Somatoform disorders

'Somatoform disorder' is a relatively new term that applies to a lot of people called 'psychosomatic disorder'.
In somatoform disorders, physical symptoms or their severity and duration can not be explained by any organic disease. The somatoform disorders include somatization disorder, conversion disorder and the hypochondria.
Psychiatrists differ considerably in their opinions about the value and validity of using these diagnostic categories. However, this distinction of different somatoform disorders psychiatrists provided a means to describe the wide variety of symptoms in those patients and to distinguish the perturbations at the base of these descriptions. The careful descriptions may help psychiatrists to sort the different disturbances, which may well be further studied scientifically.
The somatoform disorders generally have no clear explanation. Patients with a somatoform disorder can be very different. Due to not really knowing why or how people develop their symptoms, there is no specific treatment models and consensual.

Somatization is a chronic and serious characterized by many physical symptoms, particularly a combination of pain and gastrointestinal symptoms balls, sexual and neurological.
The causes of somatization are unknown. She appears often as a family trait. Persons with this disorder tend also to have personality disorders characterized by egocentrism (narcissistic personality) and a overdependence other (dependent personality).
Symptoms first appear in adolescence or early adulthood and is believed to occur predominantly in women. The male relatives of women with this disorder tend to have a high incidence of socially inappropriate behavior and alcoholism.

Treatment and Prognosis
Somatization tends to float on their severity, but persists throughout life. It is rare complete remission of symptoms for long periods. Some people become depressed more clearly over the years and its references to suicide become more threatening. Suicide is a real risk.
The treatment is extremely difficult. People with somatization disorders tend to have feelings of frustration and rage before any suggestion regarding the character of their psychological symptoms. Therefore, doctors can not treat the problem directly as psychological, though recognizing it as such. The medicines are not very helpful and even though the person go to a psychiatric consultation, specific techniques of psychotherapy have little chance of success. In general, the best treatment is a doctor-patient relationship relaxed and firm support, where the physician provides relief somatic and protects the person of possible diagnostic or therapeutic procedures very expensive and possibly dangerous. However, physicians should remain alert to the possibility of a person developing an organic disease.
Diagnosis
People with somatization are not aware that their problem is primarily psychological and therefore pressure their doctors to make their diagnostic studies and treatments. The doctor is forced to make many physical examinations and tests to determine whether the person has a physical disturbance that explains the symptoms. The interconsultation experts are frequent, even when the person has developed a reasonably satisfactory relationship with your doctor.
Once the physician determines that the change is psychological, somatization can be distinguished from other psychiatric disorders like for its large number of symptoms and its tendency to persist for many years. At diagnosis join dramatic nature of complaints and an exhibitionist behavior, dependent, manipulative and sometimes suicidal.