Rahul feels that he is having persistent body-related symptoms (which may or may not be related to any serious medical condition). He is overly preoccupied with the symptoms and continually worry about his health and make frequent visits to doctors ? Rahul's symptoms indicates which of the following disorder ?

Somatic symptom disorder

Correct answer is Option 2: Somatic symptom disorder

Somatic symptom disorder involves a person having persistent body-related symptoms which may or may not be related to any serious medical condition. People with this disorder tend to be overly preoccupied with their symptoms and they continually worry about their health and make frequent visits to doctors.

Let's briefly explore the other options:

• Illness Anxiety Disorder (IAD): While Rahul has anxiety about his health, IAD typically doesn't involve experiencing physical symptoms. The focus in IAD is on the fear of developing a serious illness, not necessarily on present symptoms.
• Conversion Disorder: This disorder involves experiencing neurological symptoms (like weakness or paralysis) that have a psychological origin rather than a physical cause. While there might be some overlap with SSD, the specific neurological symptoms aren't mentioned in Rahul's case.
• Dissociative Disorder: This is a broader category encompassing experiences like amnesia, detachment from reality, or identity confusion. Rahul's symptoms seem more focused on physical sensations and health anxiety, not dissociation.

"Illness anxiety disorder involves persistent preoccupation about developing a serious illness and constantly worrying about this possibility. This is accompanied by anxiety about one’s health. Individuals with illness anxiety disorder are overly concerned about undiagnosed disease, negative diagnostic results, do not respond to assurance by doctors, and are easily alarmed about illness such as on hearing about someone else's ill-health or some such news. In general, both somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder are concerned with medical illnesses. But, the difference lies in the way this concern is expressed. In the case of somatic symptom disorder, this expression is in terms of physical complaints while in case of illness anxiety disorder, as the name suggests, it is the anxiety which is the main concern.

The symptoms of conversion disorders are the reported loss of part or all of some basic body functions. Paralysis, blindness, deafness and difficulty in walking are generally among the symptoms reported. These symptoms often occur after a stressful experience and may be quite sudden."