Somatoform Disorders

1. Somatoform Disorders • Somatic comes from a Greek word for “body” • Symptoms take a bodily form without apparent physical causes

2. Hypochondriasis • Better known as hypochondria • A somatoform disorder characterized by imagined symptoms of illness • People with this disorder experience symptoms of physical illness, such as headaches and fleeting joint pains, but medical exams reveal nothing physically wrong with their bodies.

3. Hypochondriac • Hypochondriasis is, quite literally, all in the mind. • They suffer because they believe they are sick • We all occasionally have these feelings, but not to the extent of someone with this disorder • Pretending to be sick to avoid responsibility or to gain attention does not qualify as hypochondriasis

4. Conversion Disorder • Another somatoform disorder • Formerly called hysteria • Takes its name from its main symptom – the change, or conversion, of a psychological factor (usually anxiety) into an actual loss of physical function

5. A person with conversion disorder might suddenly experience blindness, laryngitis, or paralysis that has no physical cause. • You may have experienced a minor version of this if you’ve ever been so frightened that you momentarily lost the ability to move or were so stunned that you literally couldn’t speak

6. The key with somatoform disorders is that they have no real physical basis

7. Dissociative Disorders

8. Dissociative Disorders • Disorders in which the sense of self has become separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, or feelings • Quite rare and usually represent a response to overwhelming stress

9. Types of Dissociative Disorders • Dissociative Amnesia • Dissociative Fugue • Dissociative Identity Disorder

10. Dissociative Amnesia • Amnesia is memory loss and can be caused by a number of things – drug use, alcohol, head injury, etc. • Dissociative Amnesia, however, is memory loss due to a traumatic event • For example – military combat, a natural disaster, or an automobile accident

11. Dissociative Fugue • An extended form of dissociative amnesia characterized by loss of identity and travel to a new location • Can last for a few hours or months and even years

12. Fugue State • Person may form new identity, new friendships, even a new line of work • Like other Diss. Disorders it is caused by an unconscious response to extreme stress

13. Dissociative Identity Disorder • Formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) • A rare and controversial disorder in which an individual exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities

14. DID • Personalities can differ in age, gender, and even handedness as a patient switches from one personality to another • Sometimes these personalities are aware of each other and sometimes they are not

15. On the rise? • Before the 1970’s fewer than 100 cases diagnosed • During the 1980’s alone more than 20,000 cases diagnosed – almost all in USA • Average number of personalities has also increased from 3 to 12 with some people reporting dozens of personalities

16. Is it real? • Psychologists disagree • Psychiatrists may be unintentionally suggesting multiple personalities to their clients

17. How is it different from schizophrenia? • People with DID experience many personalities living in the same mind. Schizophrenics do not. They are always the same person. • People with DID do not experience the delusions and hallucinations that schizophrenics do. Schizophrenics may hear or see people, but they do not become these people.