Functional Somatic Symptoms

Abstract Every individual experiences subjective somatic symptoms that might or might not be explained by a known medical condition. Some of these symptoms disappear quickly, whereas others persist. This chapter focuses mostly on symptoms that cannot be easily understood from a solely biomedical perspective, the so-called functional somatic symptoms (FSS). The symptoms referred to as FSS are comprised of varying combinations of pain in different parts of the body, functional disturbances attributed to organs like cardiovascular or gastrointestinal dysfunctions or dizziness, and symptoms surrounding fatigue. Their main characteristics, pathophysiology, and etiology are briefly discussed. In addition, the authors discuss the relation between FSS and the current DSM classification of somatic symptom disorder and other related diagnostic categories.