Types of Psychosomatic

IllnessMaurice Prout

Types of Psychosomatic Illness

Dr. Maurice Prout has significant experience at the Institute for Graduate

Clinical Psychology at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania. He

directs the institute's respecialization program and is coordinator of

concentrations in cognitive/behavior therapy and brief psychotherapy.

Maurice Prout's clinical interests encompass stress management, anxiety,

and psychosomatics.

Types of Psychosomatic Illness

Psychosomatic illnesses occur in both the mind and the body. One type of

psychosomatic disease affects people who have a mental illness and a

medical illness. The presence of both can make it difficult to distinguish

between a medical and mental origin.

Another kind of psychosomatic condition consists of a mental illness caused

by a medical intervention. Yet a third variety, somatoform disorders,

happens when physical symptoms can be traced to a psychiatric problem.

Types of Psychosomatic Illness

Somatoform disorders are themselves categorized. Body dysmorphic

disorder is an obsession with body parts being too small or otherwise

abnormal . In conversion disorder, patients have neurological symptoms

that affect senses and motion. Patients having hypochondriasis imagine

they have a serious malady, because they misunderstand the meaning of

an ordinary bodily event.

Types of Psychosomatic Illness

Finally, somatization disorder is present when a person complains of

physical symptoms that lack a physical cause.