What Does Psychosomatic Mean?

The term “psychosomatic disorder” means “a physical disease that is thought to be caused, or made worse, by mental factors.” This term is also used when mental factors cause physical symptoms but where there is no physical disease. For example, chest pain may be caused by stress and no physical disease can be found. Some physical diseases are thought to be prone to be made worse by mental factors such as stress and anxiety. A person’s mental state can affect the degree of severity of a physical disease. Physical symptoms that are caused by mental factors are also called somatization or somatoform disorders. These symptoms are due to increased activity of nervous impulses sent from the brain to various parts of the body.


Source

Which diseases are psychosomatic?To an extent, most diseases are psychosomatic - including both mind and body. There is a mental aspect to every physical disease. How we react to disease and how we deal with disease vary greatly from person to person. For example, the rash of psoriasis may not bother some people very much. However, the rash covering the same parts of the body in someone else may make them feel depressed and, as a result, more ill.

TreatmentEach disease has its own treatment options. For physical diseases, physical treatments such as medication or operations are usually the most important. However, healthcare workers will usually try to treat a person as a whole and take into account mental and social factors which may be contributing to a disease. Therefore, treatments to ease stress, anxiety and depression may help if they are thought to be contributing to your physical disease.