somatic

Question 1

what is somatic symptom disorder?

Answer 1

individuals may experience physical symptoms for which there is no apparent cause - rather from the psych. they are worried about these symptoms and seek medical treatment.
-easier to diagnosis when there are known psych factors that lead to the development of the symptoms

Question 2

what is pseudocyesis ?

Answer 2

in women when they are under significant stress - more common in lower SES. have a false pregnancy with all the typical symptoms of being pregnant

Question 3

what are the five specific disorders under the somatic symptom disorder umbrella

Answer 3

1. somatic symptom
2. illness anxiety disorder
3. functional neurological symptom
4. factitious disorder
5. psychological factors affecting other medical conditions

Question 4

Somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety

Answer 4

• have one or more distressing physical symptom and spend large amount of time thinking about it and seeking medical care for them
• symptoms include: pain, heart palpitations, neurological, gastrointestinal, limb weakness, etc.
• will seek medical care when usually not warranted
• most prevalent in women (10:1 ratio for women to men)
• can be care seeking or care avoidant
• somatic symptoms are more likely than illness anxiety to report sever health anxiety, symptoms, depression, and high health service use
• comorbidity with GAD, Panic, OCD,

Question 5

what age group is more likely to show emotions in somatic symptoms? and SES

Answer 5

older adults - taught depression and anxiety is not real so their emotions are shown in physical problems
younger kids: dont know how to convey negative emotions so they say physical pain
- disability, low income, impaired sleep, psych distress

Question 6

theories of somatic symptom disorder

Answer 6

• positively correlated with PTSD
• higher in women who were abused earlier in life
  -dysfunctional belief about illnesses, that they are extremely common and misinterpret any physical changing in themselves as sign of concern.
• cognition and physiological processes can present worse to doctors and cause them to do more testings and sympathy from family and friends
• could cause strain at work because they are more likely to miss days of work

Question 7

treatment for somatic syndrome disorder

Answer 7

• can be hard to convince someone they need help with this disorder since most symptoms are physical
  -psychodynamic therapy: recall memories and emotions that trigger their symptoms and find why where is this connection
  -behavioral: find what is reinforcements they receive from their symptoms and health complaints and stop them
  -cognitive: learn to interpret physical symptoms appropriately
  -cognitive behavioral: work to challenge thoughts and misinterpretations of physical sensations
  -belief systems and cultural traditions

Question 8

functional neurological symptom disorder (FND)

Answer 8

• neurological symptoms that cannot be explained from a disease or other medical condition.
• could include: mutism, tremors, blindness, non-epileptic seizures, loss of hearing, loss of feeling in limb
• can have repeated episodes in different parts of body
• first thought it was the physical manifestation of trauma and internal emotions

Question 9

theories of FND

Answer 9

• Freud: thought it was psychic energy attached to repressed emotion showing itself physically. said primary gain was reduction in anxiety and secondary gain was concern from others and not having responsibility or obligation
• behavioral theories: focus on ability of this disorder to alleviate someone from an unwanted situation or responsibility
• highly hypnotized
• neurological models: happens due to sensory or motor areas of the brain impaired from anxiety. misconnect between areas that regulate anxiety and areas of interest

Question 10

conversion symptoms and world wars

Answer 10

very common and could be a representation of the trauma they saw.
- la belle indifference: would be unconcerned of their paralysis or blindness because they were no longer required on the front line

Question 11

treatment for FND

Answer 11

-psychoanalytic: expressing painful memories or emotions to see how they relate to conversion symptoms
- cognitive behavioral: relieve anxiety centered around the trauma that caused the conversion symptoms

Question 12

factitious disorder (munchhausen’s syndrome)

Answer 12

deliberately fakes an illness to gain medical attention to become patient. usually faking physical symptoms but can also be psychological

Question 13

difference between factitious disorder and malingering

Answer 13

malingering: fake symptom or disorder for external gain like money or getting out of the draft. not considered a psychological disorder

Question 14

what is factitious disorder imposed on anther

Answer 14

someone falsifies illness in another (usually child but could be pet or parent) so they look like devoted caretakers and get attention

Question 15

dissociative disorder

Answer 15

disruption from normal integration of memory, identity, conscious, perception, behavior, and motor control that disrupts psychological functioning
- problem integrating active and receptive consciousness

Question 16

what is passive receptive mode

Answer 16

conscious registers and stores information without being aware that the information has been processed

Question 17

what brain functions can operate unconsciously

Answer 17

problem solving, decision making, working memory, subliminal info processing, motivation.
- part of the “hidden observer”
where special state of cognitive unconscious in highly susceptive individuals

Question 18

dissociative identity disorder (DID)

Answer 18

presence of 2+ distinct identifies (alters) or personality states in an individual. create divide in sense of self, feeling of control over actions, consciousness, and memory
- each alter has unique perceptions and relations to the world that when they take over cause significant distress and dysfunction
- usually created as a coping mechanism and are thought of as fragmentations of identity instead of whole new separate identifies
- more sever and earlier onset childhood abuse appears to differentiate this from PTSD (usually from caregiver)
- usually go years in hospital without correct diagnosis (average 7-12 yrs)

Question 19

alters and what they originate from

Answer 19

child: most common from childhood trauma - could be big sister or brother while host escapes
persecutory: often are mean to the host and are from shame and anger from traumatic event usually engage in self mutilating
helping: offer advice to other personalities and function’s the host is unable to perform, can report thoughts on personalities behaviors and switching from one to another

Question 20

usual feelings of someone with DID

Answer 20

highly alienates, shame, betrayal, self-blame, anger, fear

Question 21

theories of DID

Answer 21

sociocognitive: created by patient as explanation that fits their lives - thought of as metaphors to understand subjective experiments - playing role to help understand stress of life
- bio: not a definite gene link found yet but thought to have a genetic component due to the dissociation portion

Question 22

what parts of brain are impacted by dissociation

Answer 22

cingulate gyrus, medial prefrontal cortex, superior frontal lobe, smaller hippocampus volume

Question 23

treatment options for DID

Answer 23

three-phase, trauma focused psychotherapy process
1st: safety concerns, stabilize DID symptoms, create trusting relationship between client and therapist
2nd: process, grieve, and resolve trauma
3rd: ultimate goal is to bring together all alters so they feel a sense of self

Question 24

define dissociative amnesia:

Answer 24

inability to recall autobiographical information - can be specific to event, time period, or generalized to identity or life history - risk for suicide
- episodes can last for minutes or decades
-impacts memory systems and prevents them from connecting to the past
- thought of as prevention from integrating traumatic and normal conscious experiences so they cannot access trauma memories

Question 25

organic vs. psychogenic amnesia

Answer 25

organic: from brain injury due to disease, drugs, accident, etc.
called anterograde if they cannot remember new information

psychogenic: no brain injury and has psycho causes

retrograde: memory impairments from the past

Question 26

dissociative fugue

Answer 26

individual travels to new location and assumes new identify without worrying they cannot remember anything -but will travel back and go back to normal life before without remembering the new life they created

Question 27

different models for dissociative amnesia

Answer 27

neurological model: changes in activation levels of prefrontal cortex and hippocampus resulting in impaired retention

state-dependent: if memories were made during a high arousal then it may be encoded and have to have very specific and similar conditions to recall

Question 28

what is depersonalization/derealization disorder

Answer 28

feel detached from their own mental processes or body - feel like someone observing their actions from the outside