<p>Despite the rapid advances in medical science, the majority of people who visit a doctor have medically unexplained symptoms (MUS), symptoms that remain a mystery despite extensive diagnostic studies. The most common MUS are back pain, abdominal pain, headache, fatigue, and dizziness. This book addresses the obstacles of managing people with MUS in our modern day society from both a historical and contemporary perspective.</p><p>Most MUS are psychosomatic in origin, caused by a complex interaction between nature and nurture, between biological and psychosocial factors. Psychosomatic symptoms are as real and as severe as the symptoms associated with structural damage to the brain. Unique and concise, the book explores the biological and psychosocial mechanisms, the clinical features, and current and future treatments of common MUS. </p><p>Exploring the unsolved in an accessible manner, <i>Medically Unexplained Symptoms</i> invokes the methodologies of medical science, history, and sociology to investigate how brain flaws can lead to debilitating symptoms. </p>
<p> Evolution and the brain</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Chapter 4. Psychosomatic illness in the 20th Century</p>
<p> Freud, the early years</p>
<p> Breuer’s famous patient, Bertha Pappenheim</p>
<p> Freud and Breuer’s book on hysteria</p>
<p> Suppressed memories and childhood sexuality</p>
<p> Freud’s model of the mind</p>
<p> Overall impact of psychoanalysis</p>
<p> Physicians, patients and psychosomatic symptoms</p>
<p> Common sense psychotherapy</p>
<p> Alternate medical treatments and suggestibility</p>
<p> War and Psychogenic Illness</p>
<p> PTSD the prototypical delayed stress disorder</p>
<p> Relationship between PTSD and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI)</p>
Chapter 5. Biological mechanisms of Psychosomatic Symptoms<p></p>
<p> The biological link between stress and illness</p>
<p> The hypothalamic-sympathetic-adrenal axis</p>
<p> The brain’s emotional center, the limbic system</p>
<p> The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis</p>
<p> Pavlov and neural plasticity</p>
<p> Molecular mechanisms of brain plasticity</p>
<p> Stress and the limbic system</p>
<p> Nerve growth factors and stress</p>
<p> The amygdala-prefrontal cortex connection</p>
<p> Central sensitization, a model of neuroplasticity</p>
<p> The descending pain modulatory system (DPMS)</p>
<p> Stress and human behavior</p>
<p> Operant conditioning and behavioral therapy</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Chapter 6. Psychosocial mechanisms of psychosomatic Symptoms</p>
<p> How can beliefs and expectations change brain function? </p>
<p> Doctor patient relationship and psychosomatic symptoms</p>
<p> The power of the placebo</p>
<p> Statins and muscle pain and weakness</p>
<p> Glutens and Celiac disease</p>
<p> Expectations and beliefs</p>
<p> Idiopathic environmental intolerance and the nocebo effect</p>
<p> The Belgium Coca-Cola fiasco</p>
<p> Sick building syndrome</p>
<p> Summary of Idiopathic environmental intolerance mechanisms </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Chapter 7. Low back pain, abdominal pain and headache</p>
<p> Overview of common pain syndromes</p>
<p> Low back pain</p>
<p> Current approach to chronic low back pain </p>
<p> Physical activity and expectation </p>
<p> Depression and fear avoidance</p>
<p> Autonomic nervous system and the gut</p>
<p> Migraine as a model for psychophysiological illnesses </p>
<p> Early ideas on the cause of migraine</p>
<p> Mechanism of the migraine aura </p>
<p> Genetic susceptibility to migraine</p>
<p> Central sensitization to pain</p>
<p> Overlap with depression and other psychogenic illnesses</p>
<p> Genetics of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Chapter 9. Chronic dizziness</p>
<p> Anxiety and Dizziness </p>
<p> Near faint dizziness and fainting</p>
<p> Dizziness and mass psychogenic illness</p>
<p> Exercise and the brain</p>
<p> Sleep and eating habits</p>
<p> Drugs that enhance neuroplasticity and neurogenesis</p>
<p> Ketamine, the new “wonder drug”</p>
<p> Drugs that effect endocannibinoid neurotransmission</p>
<p> Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)</p>
<p> Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)</p>
<p> Deep brain stimulation</p>
<p> DBS for PTSD</p>
<p>Despite the rapid advances in medical science, the majority of people who visit a doctor have medically unexplained symptoms (MUS), symptoms that remain a mystery despite extensive diagnostic studies. The most common MUS are back pain, abdominal pain, headache, fatigue, and dizziness. This book addresses the obstacles of managing people with MUS in our modern day society from both a historical and contemporary perspective.</p><p>Most MUS are psychosomatic in origin, caused by a complex interaction between nature and nurture, between biological and psychosocial factors. Psychosomatic symptoms are as real and as severe as the symptoms associated with structural damage to the brain. Unique and concise, the book explores the biological and psychosocial mechanisms, the clinical features, and current and future treatments of common MUS. </p><p>Exploring the unsolved in an accessible manner, <i>Medically Unexplained Symptoms</i> invokes the methodologies of medical science, history, and sociology to investigate how brain flaws can lead to debilitating symptoms. </p>
<p>Addresses the difficult problem of managing patients with medically unexplained symptoms</p><p>Debunks the common misconception that psychosomatic symptoms are “all in the head”</p><p>Takes a brain-centered approach for understanding the cause of symptoms</p>