Climbing the mountain: Fear of treatment progress and its relevance to the treatment of children and adolescents with somatic symptom disorders

Somatic symptom disorders represent perhaps the single most challenging illness group in the treatment of children and adolescents. These illnesses, which can include all organ systems from the central nervous system (nonepileptic seizures) to the gastrointestinal tract (functional abdominal pain),...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Brown University child and adolescent behavior letter 2017-07, Vol.33 (7), p.1-6
Main Author: Willis, Matthew D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Teenagers
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Summary:Somatic symptom disorders represent perhaps the single most challenging illness group in the treatment of children and adolescents. These illnesses, which can include all organ systems from the central nervous system (nonepileptic seizures) to the gastrointestinal tract (functional abdominal pain), all share the presence of physical symptoms that are assessed to be emotionally based, or at minimum to be associated with significant emotional contributing factors. From the process of patients and families coming to terms with the nuanced message from providers that physical symptoms are both real and emotionally based to the multidisciplinary and highly collaborative treatment necessary to ensure that these patients make the physical and emotional progress necessary to “get their lives back,” the treatment of children and adolescents with emotionally based physical symptoms is undoubtedly highly complex.
ISSN:1058-1073
1556-7575
DOI:10.1002/cbl.30222