WLU PS280 Abnormal Psychology FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE (key
concept)
Somatic Symptom/Dissociative
Somatic Symptoms Disorders (NC)
• DSM-IV Somatoform
• DSM-V Somatic Symptom
o Somatic Symptoms Disorder
▪ Pain part of SSD, before it was its own category
o Illness Anxiety Disorder
o Conversion Disorder
o Factitious Disorder
□ Clinical Description
• Somatic Symptom(s) at least one somatic/body symptom, usually they have several,
however the next part matters more
• Excessive:
o Thoughts: persistent thoughts about the symptom, they worry a lot about it
o Anxiety: healthy anxiety about the specific symptoms they are experience and
catastrophize the thoughts, thus giving them anxiety
o Behaviours: spend a lot of time/energy trying to make sense of what they are
feeling (ex. going from doctor to doctor, some may feel better temporarily while
some won’t at all after receiving a professional opinion)
• Specifier: with predominant pain
□ Prevalence & Onset
• 5% ? based on the available data
• Gender difference not a big difference between genders, but more common in women
• Cultural difference worldwide phenomenon, the difference is that they may
express/focus on different symptoms
• Onset can occur at any age
□ Comorbidity
• People may have a medical condition but their concerns are out of proportion
• Tends to co-occur with anxiety + depression
Illness Anxiety Disorder
□ Clinical Description
• Preoccupation with Serious Disease: believe they already have it or will acquire it
somehow
• Health Anxiety: if they hear about someone else’s health problems they become anxious
about their own
• No somatic symptoms: or if there is, they are very mild
• Excessive Behaviours/Avoidance spend a lot of time researching about the illness,
seeing a lot of doctors and excessive self-examinations OR trying to avoid being around
sick people, not want to go to the hospital for fear they’ll contract something or won’t
want to see a doctor because they don’t want to find out
o Care-seeking vs. Care-avoidant: most people are care-seeking
• Concerns are present for 6 months
, • Hypochondriasis what has HC is IAD + what was somization is now SSD. If you are
concerned you have cancer, if you focus on bodily symptoms it is somatic, in DSM4 for
hypochondriasis it was the concern + boldily symptom but now that is diagnosed with
Somization just concern for sickness is IAD
□ Prevalence and Onset
• Community vs. Medical Patient Samples: higher than 5% for those in medical patient
samples
• 5%?
• Gender equal rates
• Onset early to middle adulthood
Somatic Symptom & Illness Anxiety Disorders
□ Etiology
• Family Link runs in families
• Link to Anxiety similar to panic disorder as they experience bodily fluctuations they
take it as a sign of disease/panic
o Catastrophic misinterpretations of physical sensations
• Attention for sick behavior secondary gain, ex. getting out of chores
□ Treatment
• Decrease reassurance seeking ??
• Reduce secondary gain are there things a person is getting through SS or IAD that are
making them benefit? If there is, reduce it
• Modify illness perceptions/Decatastrophize ex. if they’re focused on a somatic
symptom, what evidence do you have that you have it?
• Evoke physical sensations
Conversion Disorder
□ Other terms
• Hysteria
• Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder
□ Clinical Description
• Physical Malfunctioning
o Involving voluntary motor or sensory functioning
o Looks like neurological disease but symptoms are incompatible with neurological
disease
□ Examples
• Seizures or Convulsions: non epileptic seizures, therefore they are voluntarily bringing it
on and having the convulsions
• Motor symptoms: weakness and paralysis
• Sensory symptoms: a loss of feeling (ex. touch, pain sensation)
□ Prevalence and Onset
• Rare
• Gender Difference: much more common in women
, • Onset: can develop at any time, usually after stressor
□ Other Considerations
• Malingering are they intentionally faking symptoms for money or a lawsuit?
o La Bell Indifference: very indifferent to having these symptoms, almost
unconcerned about it
• Factitious Disorder
o Imposed on self faking physical or psychological symptoms for attention
o Imposed on Another (Factitious Disorder by Proxy) ex. a parent who makes
their child sick, isn’t motivated by external factors but usually for attention (Ex.
look how good of a job she is doing dealing with her sick child)
□ Etiology
• Trauma main factor that is talked about, how they cope with that trauma
• Little to no evidence for Genetics
• Some Neurophysiological Evidence conversion symptoms are common on the left side,
which are common on the left side, which is controlled by the right – emotional – part of
the brain
□ Treatment
• Referral to Mental Health Professional
• Address the Traumatic Event
• Remove sources of Secondary Gain Remove the benefits someone has through the
disorder
Dissociative Disorders
□ Positive Dissociative Symptoms: Intruding into awareness
• Depersonalization: involves feeling like an outside observer of your own behavior, having
an altered perception of self
• Derealization: altered perception of the world around you, feeling like the world are you
isn’t real
• Fragmentation of Identity: feeling like there is more than one personality
□ Negative Dissociative Symptoms: inability to get at memory
• Memory loss (amnesia):
Dissociation on a Continuum
• Ross Winnipeg Study
o Created dissociative experiences scale
o Some dissociative experiences are common (ex. writing a note and finding it
later, you don’t remember writing it but it is your writing)
o Evidence to support that DID represents the far end of a continuum ex. as
severe as finding yourself in clothes you don’t remember putting on
• Depersonalization / Derealization Disorder à no disturbances in memory
• Dissociative Amnesia
o Dissociative Fugue à used to be its own category now a sub category
• Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
concept)
Somatic Symptom/Dissociative
Somatic Symptoms Disorders (NC)
• DSM-IV Somatoform
• DSM-V Somatic Symptom
o Somatic Symptoms Disorder
▪ Pain part of SSD, before it was its own category
o Illness Anxiety Disorder
o Conversion Disorder
o Factitious Disorder
□ Clinical Description
• Somatic Symptom(s) at least one somatic/body symptom, usually they have several,
however the next part matters more
• Excessive:
o Thoughts: persistent thoughts about the symptom, they worry a lot about it
o Anxiety: healthy anxiety about the specific symptoms they are experience and
catastrophize the thoughts, thus giving them anxiety
o Behaviours: spend a lot of time/energy trying to make sense of what they are
feeling (ex. going from doctor to doctor, some may feel better temporarily while
some won’t at all after receiving a professional opinion)
• Specifier: with predominant pain
□ Prevalence & Onset
• 5% ? based on the available data
• Gender difference not a big difference between genders, but more common in women
• Cultural difference worldwide phenomenon, the difference is that they may
express/focus on different symptoms
• Onset can occur at any age
□ Comorbidity
• People may have a medical condition but their concerns are out of proportion
• Tends to co-occur with anxiety + depression
Illness Anxiety Disorder
□ Clinical Description
• Preoccupation with Serious Disease: believe they already have it or will acquire it
somehow
• Health Anxiety: if they hear about someone else’s health problems they become anxious
about their own
• No somatic symptoms: or if there is, they are very mild
• Excessive Behaviours/Avoidance spend a lot of time researching about the illness,
seeing a lot of doctors and excessive self-examinations OR trying to avoid being around
sick people, not want to go to the hospital for fear they’ll contract something or won’t
want to see a doctor because they don’t want to find out
o Care-seeking vs. Care-avoidant: most people are care-seeking
• Concerns are present for 6 months
, • Hypochondriasis what has HC is IAD + what was somization is now SSD. If you are
concerned you have cancer, if you focus on bodily symptoms it is somatic, in DSM4 for
hypochondriasis it was the concern + boldily symptom but now that is diagnosed with
Somization just concern for sickness is IAD
□ Prevalence and Onset
• Community vs. Medical Patient Samples: higher than 5% for those in medical patient
samples
• 5%?
• Gender equal rates
• Onset early to middle adulthood
Somatic Symptom & Illness Anxiety Disorders
□ Etiology
• Family Link runs in families
• Link to Anxiety similar to panic disorder as they experience bodily fluctuations they
take it as a sign of disease/panic
o Catastrophic misinterpretations of physical sensations
• Attention for sick behavior secondary gain, ex. getting out of chores
□ Treatment
• Decrease reassurance seeking ??
• Reduce secondary gain are there things a person is getting through SS or IAD that are
making them benefit? If there is, reduce it
• Modify illness perceptions/Decatastrophize ex. if they’re focused on a somatic
symptom, what evidence do you have that you have it?
• Evoke physical sensations
Conversion Disorder
□ Other terms
• Hysteria
• Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder
□ Clinical Description
• Physical Malfunctioning
o Involving voluntary motor or sensory functioning
o Looks like neurological disease but symptoms are incompatible with neurological
disease
□ Examples
• Seizures or Convulsions: non epileptic seizures, therefore they are voluntarily bringing it
on and having the convulsions
• Motor symptoms: weakness and paralysis
• Sensory symptoms: a loss of feeling (ex. touch, pain sensation)
□ Prevalence and Onset
• Rare
• Gender Difference: much more common in women
, • Onset: can develop at any time, usually after stressor
□ Other Considerations
• Malingering are they intentionally faking symptoms for money or a lawsuit?
o La Bell Indifference: very indifferent to having these symptoms, almost
unconcerned about it
• Factitious Disorder
o Imposed on self faking physical or psychological symptoms for attention
o Imposed on Another (Factitious Disorder by Proxy) ex. a parent who makes
their child sick, isn’t motivated by external factors but usually for attention (Ex.
look how good of a job she is doing dealing with her sick child)
□ Etiology
• Trauma main factor that is talked about, how they cope with that trauma
• Little to no evidence for Genetics
• Some Neurophysiological Evidence conversion symptoms are common on the left side,
which are common on the left side, which is controlled by the right – emotional – part of
the brain
□ Treatment
• Referral to Mental Health Professional
• Address the Traumatic Event
• Remove sources of Secondary Gain Remove the benefits someone has through the
disorder
Dissociative Disorders
□ Positive Dissociative Symptoms: Intruding into awareness
• Depersonalization: involves feeling like an outside observer of your own behavior, having
an altered perception of self
• Derealization: altered perception of the world around you, feeling like the world are you
isn’t real
• Fragmentation of Identity: feeling like there is more than one personality
□ Negative Dissociative Symptoms: inability to get at memory
• Memory loss (amnesia):
Dissociation on a Continuum
• Ross Winnipeg Study
o Created dissociative experiences scale
o Some dissociative experiences are common (ex. writing a note and finding it
later, you don’t remember writing it but it is your writing)
o Evidence to support that DID represents the far end of a continuum ex. as
severe as finding yourself in clothes you don’t remember putting on
• Depersonalization / Derealization Disorder à no disturbances in memory
• Dissociative Amnesia
o Dissociative Fugue à used to be its own category now a sub category
• Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
