Unexplained symptoms

There are a wide variety of psychiatric terms for patients who have symptoms for which no organic cause can be found:

Somatisation disorder

• multiple physical SYMPTOMS present for at least 2 years
• patient refuses to accept reassurance or negative test results

Illness anxiety disorder (hypochondriasis)

• persistent belief in the presence of an underlying serious DISEASE, e.g. cancer
• patient again refuses to accept reassurance or negative test results

<aside> 💡

• Somatisation = Symptoms
• hypoChondria = Cancer </aside>

Functional neurological disorder (conversion disorder)

• typically involves loss of motor or sensory function
• the patient doesn't consciously feign the symptoms (factitious disorder) or seek material gain (malingering)
• patients may be indifferent to their apparent disorder - la belle indifference - although this has not been backed up by some studies

Dissociative disorder

• dissociation is a process of 'separating off' certain memories from normal consciousness