PSYC 235 Lecture Notes - Vascular Dementia, Somatic Symptom Disorder, Body Dysmorphic Disorder
7 Aug 2012
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Document Summary
Individuals may be preoccupied with their health or appearance becomes so great that it dominates their lives. Their problems fall under the general heading of somatoform disorders. There is usually no identifiable medical condition causing the physical complaints. People may experience periodically sight alternations, or detachments, in consciousness or identity, and they are known as dissociative experiences or dissociation. For a few people, these experiences are so intense and extreme that they lose their identity entirely and assume a new one, or they lose their memory or sense of reality and are unable to function. In each of the 5 somatoform disorders, individuals are pathologically concerned with the appearance or functioning of their bodies: hypochondriasis, somatization disorder, conversion disorder, pain disorder, body dysmorphic disorder. In hypochondriasis, severe anxiety is focused on the possibility of having a serious disease. The threat seems so real that reassurance from physicians does not seem to help.
