Abnormal Psychology Exam 2 Practice

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.