I don't want to make people who really don't have a physical problem to be more afraid of been misdiagnosed. But I think that being misdiagnosed is a real treat when diagnosing an undifferentiated somatoform disorder and that it's not easy for the doctors to be sure that they are not missing a real physical problem.
I have just been diagnosed with a superior mesenteric artery syndrome, which is a very rare but dangerous physical illness. My symptoms appears when I was 23 years old and the doctors where unable to explained them. It took them only one year to conclude that I'm having somatisation, which means that don't have any physical problem at all. Shortly after, I have been diagnosed as having a undifferentiated somatoform disorder.
The result of this was that I have been systematically excluded by all doctors each time I was very sick. I should say that we have here, in Canada, a public health system, which means that I have only one medical record that is accessible to all the doctors. So, when I went in different towns to have a second opinion, it didn't make any difference because they could have the read the information, including the somatoform diagnostic.
The result is that my heart has weakened during the years because my artery was squeezed, until I start having heart failure and lost 30 pounds in some months. Then they didn't have other choices than to make me have many physical tests, and finally found the true 'cause of my condition. Unfortunately, more than 10 years later, it was to late to make me have a surgery because my heart is now too much weak. Without the existence of the undifferentiated somatoform disorder, I would have been probably treated quickly enough to have a normal life right now.
Like I said, I don't want people who have symptoms because of anxiety to start panicking. But I wanted to share my experience because I hope that doctors would really think twice before diagnose a somatoform disorder. There is really no risk of making too much unnecessary medical tests, but there is a bog one if you are missing something, but the patient is the only one who will pay. I wonder if it worth to use diagnosis like somatoform disorders. Who really benefit from them? Even for people who have no serious medical problem : Does this diagnosis really help them? Does it change anything in their life?