Every doctor struggles with patients with somatic symptom disorder - or SSD to use the snappy new acronym that the DSM - 5 now calls it. A wonderfully insightful and informative new book Is It All in Your Head – true stories of imaginary illness by Suzanne O’Sullivan, MD, consultant in neurology and neurophysiology at National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, England helps explain it.
It is the subject of this month's column in the Free Lance-Star.
The doctor can't find anything wrong. The patient insists there's something wrong; It's an inflammatory situation.