.... At least two disorders newly defined in the DSM-5 may inappropriately label millions of people with a psychiatric disorder. These are the so-called “Conversion Disorder” (Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder) and “Somatic Symptom Disorder” (SSD). The unproven assumption underlying both is that emotional distress can be “converted” into physical pain, seizure-like incidents or other symptoms not explained by physical disorders known to medical doctors.
With SSD, you can be labeled with a mental problem simply because you have deep distress about your health that a doctor judges to be “excessive” or the doctor thinks your life has become dominated by your illness and symptoms. The same label may be applied to you if a doctor considers you as “over-involved” in the symptoms of a child for whom you are a care-giver. Cases have already occurred in which children have been removed from the custody of parents deemed to have facilitated their “illness behaviors”...
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The dangers of assigning a psychosomatic diagnosis are shown in a March 2013 article by Alice Philipson in the Telegraph of London. The title is: Professor Dies of Lung Cancer After Doctors Dismiss Illness as ‘Purely Psychological.’
full article
http://davidhealy.org/somatic-symptom-disorder/
Dr. David Healy is an internationally respected psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, scientist, and author. A professor of Psychiatry in Wales ...