Friday, November 11, 2011

"Somataform Disorder"?




The doctors here have all been working together and say they are comfortable with saying that she might have a condition called 'somataform disorder'.

They also said they can't say 100% if that is the diagnosis, but that they feel comfortable treating her for it.

This is copied from Wikipedia on Somatoform disorder:

"In psychology, a somatoform disorder is a mental disorder characterized by physical symptoms that suggest physical illness or injury - symptoms that cannot be explained fully by a general medical condition, direct effect of a substance, or attributable to another mental disorder (e.g. panic disorder).[1] The symptoms that result from a somatoform disorder are due to mental factors. In people who have a somatoform disorder, medical test results are either normal or do not explain the person's symptoms. Patients with this disorder often become worried about their health because the doctors are unable to find a cause for their health problems. Symptoms are sometimes similar to those of other illnesses and may last for several years.

Somatoform disorders are not the result of conscious malingering (fabricating or exaggerating symptoms for secondary motives) or factitious disorders (deliberately producing, feigning, or exaggerating symptoms) - sufferers perceive their plight as real."

All of this makes me think about Fibromyalgia. (I'm not saying that I think Kiera has a form of it at all) Doctors don't have a solid cause of fibro, and only know some ways to try to help the symptoms. So, I wonder if this condition has some similarities that way?
They are working on finding what can be helpful in helping her becoming functional, but maybe like fibro there are yet unknown factors in the cause?
Who knows.

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