Korean J Psychosom Med.  2016 Jun;24(1):43-53. 10.0000/kjpm.2016.24.1.43.

Somatic Symptoms after Psychological Trauma

• Park JE
• Ahn HN
• Kim WH

• KMID: 2321475
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.0000/kjpm.2016.24.1.43

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Somatic symptoms after the exposure of psychological trauma frequently developed. However, the somatic symptoms are not covered under the diagnostic criteria of posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD) in detail, although they are often associated with social and occupational functioning and patient-doctor relationships. The aim of this article is to highlight the potential mechanisms, the common manifestations, and the treatment of the somatic symptoms.
METHODS
This article studied the somatic symptoms searched using academic search engines like PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, KoreaMed and KISS from the earliest available date of indexing to March 31, 2016.
RESULTS
The mechanism of somatic symptoms after the exposure was described as psychological and physiological aspects. Psychological mechanism consisted of psychodynamic theory, cognitive behavioral theory, and others. Physiological mechanism involved changes in neuroendocrine and immune system, autonomic nervous system and central nervous system. Somatization associated with psychological trauma manifested various health conditions on head and neck, chest, abdominal, musculoskeletal, and dermatological and immune system. Few studies described the standardization of treatment for the somatic symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS
Clinicians and disaster behavioral health providers should think of the accompanying somatic symptoms during intervention of psychological trauma and PTSD. Further studies are needed on the somatic symptoms seen in psychological trauma and PTSD.

Keyword

Posttraumatic stress disorder; Psychological trauma; Somatic symptoms; Somatization

MeSH Terms

Abstracting and Indexing as Topic
Autonomic Nervous System
Central Nervous System
Disasters
Head
Immune System
Neck
Psychological Trauma*
Search Engine
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
Thorax