What is meant by Psychosomatics (or psychosomatic disorders)?

By Cristiano Antonino On Mar 24, 2023

Psychosomatics is a broad field of pathology that lies halfway between medicine and psychology

Psychosomatics investigates the relationship between mind and body, or between the emotional and affective world and the soma

Specifically, psychosomatics aims to detect and understand the negative effects that the psyche, the mind, produces on the soma, the body.

Definition of psychosomatic disorder

Psychosomatic disorders can be considered real diseases that involve damage at an organic level and which are caused or aggravated by emotional factors.

Psychosomatic disorder is defined as the physical response to a psychological distress.

In particular, situations of emotional stress, pathological anxiety, constant fear or strong concern can lead the body to express a deeper discomfort in the form of an alarm bell.

Psychosomatic symptoms result neither from a general medical condition nor from the direct effects of a substance, but from the presence of a mental disorder.

Psychosomatic disorders and the autonomic nervous system

Psychosomatic symptoms involve the autonomic nervous system and provide a vegetative response to situations of psychic discomfort or stress.

Negative emotions, such as resentment, regret, and worry can keep the autonomic nervous system (sympathetic system) in an aroused state.

As well as the body in a continuous emergency condition, sometimes for a longer time than the body is able to bear.

Overly anxious thoughts, therefore, can keep the autonomic nervous system in a state of persistent activation which can cause damage to weaker organs.

Types of psychosomatic symptoms

Psychosomatic disorders can occur in all organs and systems of the human body.

Psychosomatic disorders can manifest themselves:

in the gastrointestinal tract (psychosomatic gastritis, psychosomatic spastic colitis, peptic ulcer)
in the cardiovascular system (tachycardia, arrhythmias, ischemic heart disease, essential hypertension)
in the respiratory system (bronchial asthma, hyperventilatory syndrome)
in the urogenital system (menstrual pain, impotence, premature ejaculation or anorgasmia, enuresis)
in the skin system (psoriasis, acne, psychosomatic dermatitis, itching, urticaria, dry skin and mucous membranes, profuse sweating)
in the musculoskeletal system (tension headaches (or headaches), muscle cramps, chronic fatigue, stiff neck, fibromyalgia, arthritis, spinal pain, neck headache)

Finally, psychosomatic disorders can also express themselves in the form of problems associated with nutrition.

Risk factors for psychosomatics

Among the risk factors, triggering psychosomatic symptoms, there are:

– temperament

– personality

– psychosocial stress

– life events

– underlying psychological disorders

Psychological and psychosomatic disorders

Psychosomatic symptoms are common in various forms of depression and in almost all anxiety disorders.

But there are real psychosomatic disorders in the absence of other symptoms of a psychological nature.

These make it more difficult for the subject to attribute the physical discomfort to a psychological problem rather than to an organic malfunction.

Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to be very effective for these types of disorders. In particular, cognitive behavioral therapy combines two forms of therapy: behavioral therapy and cognitive therapy.
Behavioral therapy helps to change the relationship between situations that create difficulties and the person’s habitual reactions, physical, emotional and behavioral in these circumstances, by learning new ways of reacting. It also makes use of relaxation techniques such as autogenic training and progressive muscle relaxation.
Cognitive therapy helps to identify and restructure recurring thoughts, fixed patterns of reasoning and interpretation of reality, which are concomitant with the physical, emotional and behavioral reactions that create discomfort.