| Author |
Message |
NonCIMLL
Member
Joined: 21 Jul 2007
Posts: 5
|
# Posted: 21 Jul 2007 19:17
Reply
What are psychosomatic disorders and how are they caused?
|
Dr_Broadland
Member
Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 62
|
# Posted: 22 Jul 2007 22:04
Reply
A Psychosomatic disorder is a "condition in which psychological stresses adversely affect physiological (somatic) functioning to the point of distress". (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
"Psyche" means mind and "soma" means body. Therefore a physical or bodily manifestation of an underlying psychological condition is a psychological disorder. Note that we tend to use the word "Disorder" and not "disease". This is probably an inheritance in medicine from the old days when psychological conditions were not recognised as diseases and therefore what appeared to be a disease was called psychosomatic disorder if we suspected that the aetiology (underlying cause) was psychological. Today we are more ready to accept psychological conditions as illnesses and diseases.
One should not confuse this with the mental aspects of a physical disease, i.e. most disease will also cause a mental manifestations. In this situation the psychological or mental aspect is merely one of the end results of a disease process.
Some of the results of psychological state are obvious. An anxious person has a fast heart rate (tachycardia), he/she sweats and gets palpitations. However these are merely physical manifestations of a psychological state and not usually referred to as a disorder. On the other hand, a chronic anxiety or a repetitive stress causing a stomach ulcer is definitely a psychosomatic disorder, We may choose to work it slightly differently and say that the person has an ulcer disease, aggravated by chronic anxiety.
Other diseases that can be aggravated by psychological stress are , psoriasis, eczema, high blood pressure, and heart disease
Some of the true psychological disorders are simple thing like hives which comes up during psychological stress (histamine reaction) or blood pressure going up unduly when in a doctor's office.
Stress remains one of the biggest cause of many psychosomatic disorders or of aggravating many physical diseases.
|
TajviRAC
Member
Joined: 7 Apr 2008
Posts: 80
|
# Posted: 26 Apr 2008 08:14
Reply
The diseases you mentioned might be aggravated by mental stress are very common in modern days.
However, I was little amazed to see a disease like the eczema being related to stress.
I never doubted high blood pressure and cardio-vascular diseases having some link with mental stress, but eczema is really new in the list.
|
Dr_Broadland
Member
Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 62
|
# Posted: 27 Apr 2008 20:10
Reply
Stress doesn't actually cause eczema (atopic dermatitis), but it can trigger a flare-up, or make the condition worse. Feelings like anger and frustration can also aggravate eczema.
Since emotional stress can aggravate eczema, patients with eczema (atopic dermatitis) may find that techniques in stress management and relaxation can decrease their chances of having flare-ups.
Eczema can and often does flare up when a person is under stress, feels anxious, angry, or worried. The patient has to learn how to recognize and cope with these emotions through stress reduction techniques. In Canada these are available through local community workshops. Changing your activities to reduce daily stress can also be helpful.
I must restate that Stress is NOT considered a cause of eczema; rather it is more likely to aggravate of induce flare-ups of a preexisting condition of eczema.
"Nerodermatoses" is often used in psychiatry as essentially a skin condition that is cause d by mental state or condition. The appearance is akin to eczema, and sometime I have wondered if the use of the word "Nerodermatoses" is admission that eczema can be caused by stress.
|
StressedOut
Member
Joined: 3 Apr 2008
Posts: 25
|
# Posted: 28 Apr 2008 11:13
Reply
Most people are born with eczema right? my best friend has had it since birth and it isn't caused by stress. She does have flare-ups when she is facing exams in university. So I agree with Broadland, flareups can be caused by stress
|
Dr_Broadland
Member
Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 62
|
# Posted: 30 Apr 2008 12:51
Reply
Quoting: StressedOut Most people are born with eczema right?
The cause of eczema (atopic dermatitis) is unknown. It is a genetic disease. To that extent you can say "you are born with it".
It arises from interaction of multiple genes with external environmental factors. The more abnormal (atopic) genes that are present, the less external initiators are required to produce the eczema.
Going deeper into the understanding of the mechanism, we find that the cells that are at the centre of the inflammation are called T lymphocytes - the soldiers of the immune reactions of the body. In the production of eczematous reaction, the factors that come into play are, increased T-cell activity in response to various antigens, excessive stimulation of T-cells by genetically altered 'atopic" Langerhans cells, resident in the epidermis , and genetic defect in the epidermal barrier that makes the skin susceptible to breakdown by irritants.
|
TajviRAC
Member
Joined: 7 Apr 2008
Posts: 80
|
# Posted: 6 May 2008 12:44
Reply
Are not these Lymphocytes called the white blood cells? They are supposed to be able to guard the body form the germs. However, when they can’t fight back or loose a battle, you have the infection or the disease.
Could you please clarify this relation between "stress" - a psychological state and the blood cells - the physiological units?
|
Dr_Broadland
Member
Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 62
|
# Posted: 7 May 2008 10:44
Reply
It is now recognized well that stress does not cause eczema but can aggravate it.
The relationship between stress and eczema is complex. Not only does stress make eczema worse, but eczema itself causes stress. For example, an issue families might face is the emotional and social stress based on disfigurement caused by eczema. The child might have to suffer substantial teasing by other children. This can establish a cycle of eczema causing stress aggravating eczema.
The families also become stressed from trying to look after the child and from the frequent visits to doctors to observing certain rules to prevent flare-ups. Just one side effect like restless ness and sleeplessness at night can stress out the child and the mother. add to that the special needs of the child for swimming, participating school activities such as sport or field trips and you can begin to understand the overall stressful state in which the child and the family live.
Very often, the physician is either too busy or fails to recognize the effects of stress on eczema and there is general tendency to underestimate the importance of stress in aggravating eczema. While stress control counseling is offered in many stress conditions, it is nearly always sadly absent in the treatment of eczema.
|
Dr_Broadland
Member
Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 62
|
# Posted: 7 May 2008 10:55
Reply
Quoting: TajviRAC Are not these Lymphocytes called the white blood cells? They are supposed to be able to guard the body form the germs. However, when they can't fight back or loose a battle, you have the infection or the disease.
The antigen/antibody (irritant/reaction) situation gets exaggerated and the reaction part is more than desirable. There is a lot of disease related to more than expected or otherwise abnormal response from the immune system. Hence you have the paradox of the immune system itself being the cause of disease. as the society get more mature, affluent and sophisticated, the old infectious diseases come under better epidemiological control, where as the immune system related increase both per se (age based) and also relative to other diseases. Then with more drugs causing more allergic reactions, the body becomes more liable to get skin conditions. The additive effects of various irritants are not often discussed but this is a very important issue.
|
TajviRAC
Member
Joined: 7 Apr 2008
Posts: 80
|
# Posted: 13 May 2008 15:25
Reply
As we saw that most of the diseases (which are caused by germs) have evolved someway. The parasites, bacteria or virus have adopted into the new environment and are though to be more immune to medicine.
Do you think that the form of stress could have modified in course of human history?
Though no germ is directly involved behind the stress, but still there could be something new.
|
