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somatic symptom and related disorders

in DSM–5, a new diagnostic category that includes disorders predominantly characterized by the presence of bodily symptoms associated with severe distress and impairment. The group includes somatic symptom disorder, illness anxiety disorder, conversion disorder, psychological factors affecting other medical conditions (e.g., denial of medical symptoms, poor adherence to treatment), and factitious disorder. The category replaces DSM–IV–TR’s somatoform disorders as a classification scheme and eliminates somatoform disorders such as hypochondriasis, pain disorder, and somatization disorder, although some of their symptom characteristics do inform the conceptualization of disorders in the new collection.

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Psychology term of the day

November 18th 2024

paradigm clash

paradigm clash

in science or philosophy, the conflict that occurs when a new set of fundamental assumptions about reality or human knowledge proves incompatible with an established set of such assumptions. For example, the doctrine of organic evolution challenged established thinking about the origin and nature of the living world and ultimately replaced previous theories.