PSYCHIATRY: Illness Anxiety Disorder/Somatic Symptom Disorder

Beyond the Pearls: Cases for Med School, Residency and Beyond

Today's Episode

Alexandra reviews chapter 10 from the Psychiatry Morning Report book.

A 35-year-old female with no known health problems presents to the emergency department and reports that over the past 5 months, she has been experiencing more and more dizziness. She went to an urgent care center 3 months ago complaining of dizziness and was discharged with no medication. She spends an hour or two daily searching the Internet for all of the serious illnesses that can lead to dizziness. A head computed tomography (CT) scan and electrocardiogram (ECG) are ordered; both return as normal. Despite these findings, she is certain there is something terribly wrong with her. She asks anxiously, “Are you sure it’s not a cardiac sarcoma?” The patient shows no signs of intoxication and has no neurologic deficits. She appears visibly anxious and is noted to be diaphoretic and tremulous.

Today's Host

Alexandra Myers is a Medical Scribe at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

About Dr. Raj

Dr Raj is a quadruple board certified physician and associate professor at the University of Southern California. He was a co-host on the TNT series Chasing the Cure with Ann Curry, a regular on the TV Show The Doctors for the past 7 seasons and has a weekly medical segment on ABC news Los Angeles.

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