Home > Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders > Somatization disorder

Definition

Somatization disorder is a psychiatric condition marked by multiple medically unexplained physical, or somatic, symptoms. In order to qualify for the diagnosisof somatization disorder, somatic complaints must be serious enough to interfere significantly with a person's ability to perform important activities, such as work, school or family and social responsibilities, or lead the person experiencing the symptoms to seek medical treatment.

Somatization disorder has long been recognized by psychiatrists and psychologists, and was originally called Briquet's syndrome in honor of Paul Briquet, a French physician who first described the disorder in the nineteenth century. It is included in the category of somatoform disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental...