Features of etiopathogenesis of psychosomatic and somatoform disorders

Aim. To identify the features of etiopathogenesis of somatoform and psychosomatic disorders in adolescents. Methods. Examined were 426 adolescents and their families. The main group - 321 patients of the Kirov City Children’s Clinical Hospital, which included two subgroups: 117 adolescents with somatoform autonomic dysfunction, and 204 - with psychosomatic disorders; the mean age was 15.1±1 years. The control group consisted of 105 adolescents who were students of secondary schools in the city of Kirov with the first group of health; the mean age was 15.1±1 years. The clinical-psychopathological method of investigation, questionnaire surveys, and experimental psychological tests were used in order to perform the study. Results. The conducted study confirms the multifactor nature of the pathogenesis of psychosomatic disorders (identified was the importance of biological, psychological and social factors) and makes it possible to suggest that the onset of symptoms of psychosomatic disorders is formed according to the main stages of the nonspecific response to stress, from the autonomic neurotic reactions during somatoform autonomic dysfunction (at the stage of resistance) to the development of the psychosomatosis picture - during the development of psychosomatic disorders (at the exhaustion stage). The level of disease development is determined by both the individual predisposition and the spectrum of adaptive responses to stress. All this confirms the need for earliest detection of somatoform autonomic dysfunction in order to prevent the development into a chronic process and its progression. Conclusion. Complex treatment is of great importance, including the personal-oriented psychotherapy aimed at the development of adaptive mechanisms for coping with stress.

psychosomatic disorder, somatoform autonomic dysfunction, adolescents