DSM 5 definitions

[Beachlady]

"To meet the criteria for somatic symptom disorder, patients must have one or more chronic somatic symptoms about which they are excessively concerned, preoccupied or fearful. These fears and behaviors cause significant distress and dysfunction, and although patients may make frequent use of health care services, they are rarely reassured and often feel their medical care has been inadequate.

Patients with illness (HA) anxiety disorder may or may not have a medical condition but have heightened bodily sensations, are intensely anxious about the possibility of an undiagnosed illness, or devote excessive time and energy to health concerns, often obsessively researching them. Like people with somatic symptom disorder, they are not easily reassured. Illness anxiety disorder can cause considerable distress and life disruption, even at moderate levels.

People who have reasonable health concerns will not get the diagnosis," he says. "By eliminating the concept of medically unexplained symptoms, the DSM-5 criteria prevent the easy assumption of a psychiatric diagnosis in patients who present with medical symptoms of unclear etiology."

So the DSM 5 (https://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/psychiatry-psychology/news/dsm-5-redefines-hypochondriasis/mac-20429763) is attempting to distinguish between health anxiety based on somatic complaints and those are based upon anxiety and fear. I think the challenge is for people to be able to distinguish between the two in their own experience.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Both involve anxiety though but they are differentiating between different forms ("
All of the disorders in this chapter share a common feature: the prominence of somatic symptoms associated with significant distress and impairment.")
. Neither of them sit in the Anxiety Disorders category but then so don't many other disorders that thrive on anxiety & fear.

WHO don't use these definitions, hence in the UK we won't categorise as the APA guys do in the US, but they have Somatoform Disorders instead. These split into a set of disorders based on different criteria's but they all involve anxiety. For instance, some will look at predominantly GI issues, others nervous system. Then you get the sub codes like Hypochondriasis.

And then we have both OCD and GAD which also overlap into HA. HA not being a real label, sufferers created it just as they created all the OCD theme names, so you would have to consider whether you fit into these too.

It would be good if the medical world would decide who is right because in your Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders, which includes the two in your thread, you also have Conversion Disorder which to WHO is a form of Dissociative Disorder hence sits in a completely different category. You have an OCD Spectrum, WHO won't. You have Impulse Disorders moved under OCD Spectrum but WHO disagree and kept them as Impulse Disorders.

On the flipside WHO put Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) into Somatoform Disorders and that doesn't feel right to me as it feels closer to OCD in some respects. It doesn't feel right in the category it is in even if it should be more Somatoform as some of it makes sense it being there.

But who has which?

[Beachlady]

Both involve anxiety though but they are differentiating between different forms ("
All of the disorders in this chapter share a common feature: the prominence of somatic symptoms associated with significant distress and impairment.")
. Neither of them sit in the Anxiety Disorders category but then so don't many other disorders that thrive on anxiety & fear.

WHO don't use these definitions, hence in the UK we won't categorise as the APA guys do in the US, but they have Somatoform Disorders instead. These split into a set of disorders based on different criteria's but they all involve anxiety. For instance, some will look at predominantly GI issues, others nervous system. Then you get the sub codes like Hypochondriasis.

And then we have both OCD and GAD which also overlap into HA. HA not being a real label, sufferers created it just as they created all the OCD theme names, so you would have to consider whether you fit into these too.

It would be good if the medical world would decide who is right because in your Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders, which includes the two in your thread, you also have Conversion Disorder which to WHO is a form of Dissociative Disorder hence sits in a completely different category. You have an OCD Spectrum, WHO won't. You have Impulse Disorders moved under OCD Spectrum but WHO disagree and kept them as Impulse Disorders.

On the flipside WHO put Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) into Somatoform Disorders and that doesn't feel right to me as it feels closer to OCD in some respects. It doesn't feel right in the category it is in even if it should be more Somatoform as some of it makes sense it being there.

But who has which?

What I like about the DSM classifications is that it distinguishes between anxiety based on real concerns (we cancer survivors come to mind) and anxiety based upon an anxiety disorder. I think those are important classifications to make.

[MyNameIsTerry]

What I like about the DSM classifications is that it distinguishes between anxiety based on real concerns (we cancer survivors come to mind) and anxiety based upon an anxiety disorder. I think those are important classifications to make.The Somatoform Disorders don't necessarily mean there is anything wrong though. An organic issue is going to have it's own diagnosis so a mental health one can be as well as. In the DSM the first one in your OP is a focus on a chronic symptom whereas the second is a focus on a perceived condition. Both can be groundless. It's tricky knowing how these separate out from anxiety disorders. In OCD the sufferer might fear they have xyz. There seems to be a lot of overlap between Somatoform Disorders and anxiety disorders in this respect.