Somatic Symptom Disorder and Schizophrenia

Running head: SOMATIC SYMPTOM DISORDER AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
SOMATIC SYMPTOM DISORDER AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
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SOMATIC SYMPTOM DISORDER AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
Somatic Symptom Disorder or SSD is a disorder in which the person suffering from it
feels tremendous apprehension about physical symptoms like pain or fatigue. Those with SSD do
not fake their symptoms and their problems such as pain are real but it might not always be that
severe. This extreme tendency often causes great emotional distress.
The diagnosis for SSD is carried out first by prescribing a complete physical examination
for the patient. After the examination if it is found that the patient has no medical condition, he
or she is then referred to a mental health professional. However, at times when the patient
actually suffers from acute physical illness, it becomes difficult to diagnose whether he or she
has SSD or not. Although there is no evidence of whether persons with acute physical illness
could be diagnosed with SSD, most evidences suggest that it cannot be diagnosed. As per the
American Psychiatry Association (APA), “a person is not diagnosed with SSD solely because a
medical cause cannot be identified for a physical symptom” (Psychiatry.org, 2018). The focus is
given on the degree at which the behaviors and thoughts about the illness go beyond normal.
Schizophrenia is a mental illness that appears mostly in the later years of the adolescent
age or early adulthood. As per the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
Fifth Edition (DSM 5), the basic criteria for schizophrenia include delusions, disorganized
speech, hallucinations, disorganized or catatonic behavior and negative symptoms ("Updates to
DSM-5 Criteria & Text", 2018). A patient cannot be diagnosed with schizophrenia if he or she
does not have any one of these criteria.
The symptoms demonstrated by schizophrenic patients are categorized as positive and
negative symptoms, which often confuses people. However, the two terms have entirely different
meaning in this case. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia imply the features that are