As a result, while several existing statutes can be utilized effectively to handle
somatoform disorders, (21) confusion about the medical nature of the disorders, lack of uniformity in applying the relevant statute, and the tendency to cling to traditional notions of disabling conditions have dulled efficient use of those statutes and hindered effective analysis of
somatoform disorders presented for disability determination.
However it was limited by the fact that the study population only had to have suffered
somatoform disorders for six months to be included in the trial.
3,5,7-9 Moreover, there is some evidence that functional impairment is higher in
somatoform disorder with a co-morbid depressive or anxiety disorder.
Attempting to identify functional symptoms and depression early may help lessen the burden on the patient as well as the disproportionate healthcare costs associated with
somatoform disorders.
Even after such therapeutic guidelines, patients with factitious and other
somatoform disorders are often difficult to treat.
In two other controlled trials, Opipramol was superior to placebo in
somatoform disorders at 200 mg daily and in climacteric syndrome at 50 mg daily (Volz et al.
77) The first,
somatoform disorders, involves somatic symptoms that either cannot be attributed to organic disorder or whose severity cannot be accounted for by organic damage.
The common feature of all
somatoform disorders "is the presence of physical symptoms that suggest a general medical condition .
But medical students and psychiatry residents tend to have the most difficulty empathizing with those who have refractory substance abuse, personality, and
somatoform disorders.
In 1994, it was decided to retain conversion disorder with the
somatoform disorders due to the perceived advantage of facilitating the critical differential diagnosis, recognizing that patients usually see physicians other than psychiatrists initially before subsequent referral to a neurologist (Table 1).
Roy-Byrne and Stein led a team of leading psychiatrists to expand and build psychiatry content in all major areas -- including psychotic disorders, depressive disorders, bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders,
somatoform disorders, eating disorders, impulse control disorders, substance-use disorders and personality disorders.
The American DSM-IV diagnostic system defines somatic symptoms under the title of
somatoform disorders and defines conversion disorder as well as somatization, conversion and pain disorder (50, 51, 52).
