Somatization in Polypharmacy: Hiding in Plain Sight

Abstract

Polypharmacy and somatic symptom disorder (SSD) are common conditions clinicians see every day in practice. Polypharmacy is easy to identify and causation seems to be straightforward. However, SSD may not be so obvious and may be an underlying cause of the polypharmacy that may be more difficult to identify. Identifying SSD as a potential psychiatric cause for polypharmacy and understanding that adding more medications will not adequately resolve the patient’s symptoms is important to prevent polypharmacy from being exacerbated.

Keywords

• Polypharmacy
• Somatic Symptom Disorder
• Patient
• Pharmacy