Is the DSM-5 chapter on somatic symptom disorder any better than DSM-IV somatoform disorder?
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Summary: DSM-5 is a modest improvement on DSM-IV, notably in abandoning the distinction between medically explained and unexplained symptoms, but problems remain. The chapter text is incoherent, contradicts the classification and will be clinically unhelpful. ICD-11 should attempt a more logical and consistent revision.
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Health anxiety is an anxiety disorder.
“Health anxiety, an overlapping condition similar to hypochondriasis but not an exact synonym, is an anxiety disorder characterised by excessive fear of having or developing an illness, usually a medical one, with constant health monitoring, bodily checking and, more recently, internet health browsing (cyberchondria).”
From Health anxiety: Detection and treatment (2018) · cites this paper as Mayou 2014
In “Illness anxiety disorder” (page unavailable), Mayou argues that failing to place illness anxiety disorder in the DSM-5 Anxiety Disorders chapter was a mistake. This supports treating that diagnosis as an anxiety disorder, but the passage does not directly classify the broader, non-identical term “health anxiety” as one. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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- Authors
- Mayou, R.
- Corresponding author
- Mayou, Richard
- Venue
- British Journal of Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Royal College of Psychiatrists
- Published
- 2014-06
- Volume
- 204
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 418-419
- ISSN
- 0007-1250 (ISSN-L)
- 1472-1465
- OpenAlex
- W2057756862
- Cited by
- 45
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The British Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Mental Health and Psychiatry
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Medicine, History, and Philosophy
- Keywords
- somatic symptom disorder, somatoform disorders, DSM-5, DSM-IV, psychiatric classification, medically unexplained symptoms, ICD-11, diagnostic criteria
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Somatoform Disorders, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
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