The ALJ's initial finding had evaluated the claim under the
Somatoform Disorder listing, but determined that the diagnosis of Psychological Factors Affecting a Physical Condition "by definition rules out Conversion Disorder and other
Somatoform Disorders." (143) The Fifth Circuit, on appeal, appropriately corrected the ALJ's misunderstanding of the nature of conversion and
somatoform disorders, pointing out that the psychologist's diagnosis and
somatoform disorder were far from "mutually exclusive." (144) Because the ALJ improperly dismissed the possibility of a
somatoform disorder, the record was not even sufficiently developed to allow the Fifth Circuit to make an affirmative finding, forcing the court to remand the case for a due consideration of the existence of a
somatoform disorder.
The purpose of the present work consisted in the study of the interrelationship of color images and psychogenic pain of patients with
somatoform disorders during psychotherapeutic treatment.
While the combination improved mood symptoms in the treatment groups, the fact remains that
somatoform disorders are ones which are defined by their physical symptoms and thus the relevance of the primary parameters may be in doubt.
A 2005 article in the Journal of the Medical Association (JAMA) estimates over ten percent of adult patients seeking healthcare in the United States suffer from some degree of a
somatoform disorder. (3) Moreover, aside from the
somatoform disorder variation of the rotten egg phenomenon, the spectrum of underlying psychopathologies comprises other mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, impulse-control disorders, or mood disorders.
One subtype of
somatoform disorder is called conversion disorders.
There is potentially much overlap between
somatoform disorders such as conversion disorder and malingering.
(28) Some have even presented ethical reasons for abandoning the category of
somatoform disorders. (29) Increasingly, the idea that illness can be volitional has become intolerable both to medical psychiatry, which abhors anything redolent of dualism, and to the "ethics of caring," whose proponents decry anything that may lead to the blaming of patients.
For example, documentation of two of the four Part B criteria satisfies the Schizophrenic, Paranoid and Other Psychotic Disorders listing, while three of the four are necessary to satisfy the
Somatoform Disorders and Personality Disorders.
A patient with
somatoform disorder may experience a similar back pain in a stressful situation without organic changes.
His research interests are psychopharmacology, cultural psychiatry, consultation liaison psychiatry, and
somatoform disorders.
Somatoform disorders in children and adolescents: A review of the past 10 years.