What distinguishes illness anxiety disorder from somatic symptom disorder?

What distinguishes illness anxiety disorder from somatic symptom disorder?

• A. Illness anxiety disorder involves preoccupation with having or acquiring a serious illness with minimal or no somatic symptoms; somatic symptom disorder involves one or more distressing somatic symptoms with excessive thoughts/feelings/behaviors related to the symptoms.
• B. Illness anxiety disorder includes multiple somatic symptoms; somatic symptom disorder requires no concern about illness.
• C. Illness anxiety disorder is seasonal; somatic symptom disorder is unrelated to symptoms.
• D. Illness anxiety disorder is only in children; somatic symptom disorder only in adults.

Answer: (A)

The main distinction is where the distress centers: illness anxiety disorder is a preoccupation with having or getting a serious illness, and this worry occurs even when somatic symptoms are minimal or absent. Somatic symptom disorder, on the other hand, involves one or more actual distressing somatic symptoms, and there is excessive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors about those symptoms. So the focus shifts from fear of illness without symptoms to the symptoms themselves driving the anxiety and impairment. The other statements mix up this relationship—illness anxiety disorder does not require multiple somatic symptoms, somatic symptom disorder does involve concern about illness alongside symptoms, and there aren’t seasonal or age-only distinctions governing these disorders.

The main distinction is where the distress centers: illness anxiety disorder is a preoccupation with having or getting a serious illness, and this worry occurs even when somatic symptoms are minimal or absent. Somatic symptom disorder, on the other hand, involves one or more actual distressing somatic symptoms, and there is excessive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors about those symptoms. So the focus shifts from fear of illness without symptoms to the symptoms themselves driving the anxiety and impairment. The other statements mix up this relationship—illness anxiety disorder does not require multiple somatic symptoms, somatic symptom disorder does involve concern about illness alongside symptoms, and there aren’t seasonal or age-only distinctions governing these disorders.