It has been announced that the next edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) will be adding a new type of somatic symptom disorder.
The new category will eliminate the requirement that somatic symptoms must be “medically unexplained”, and will instead be shifted to focus on “excessive” responses to distressing symptoms, accompanied by “dysfunctional thoughts, feelings or behaviours”. Essentially, it encompasses the distress seen in people who are commonly overly worried about medical problems and often tend to try to diagnose themselves.
However, Allen Frances, Chair of the current (DSM-IV) task force warns that redefining this category may result in inappropriate diagnoses. This concern is supported by a trial study, showing a very high false-positive rate of 7% among healthy people in the general population.
He also explains that this new DSM-5 diagnosis is highly subjective underlying medical conditions that could explain the somatic symptoms will be ignored.
Finally, he suggests that clinicians should ignore this new category to avoid improper diagnosis.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/257865.php
