People with somatoform disorder (which used to be known as hysteria) present with a range of symptoms that typically last for years and can't be traced to a specific physical cause. Such symptoms may include frequent headaches; back pain; abdominal cramping and pelvic pain; pain in the joints, legs and arms; chest or abdominal pain, and gastrointestinal problems. This 2004 book is an in-depth, clinically orientated review of the somatoform disorders and related clinical presentations (such as chronic fatigue syndrome) and how they present in a medico-legal setting. It is aimed at both clinicians and lawyers who deal with injury claims where these disorders impact much more frequently than is generally recognised.
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Review of the hardback: 'Trimble's literary references and clear, witty prose make this book easy and even entertaining to read … the points he makes on somatoform disorders in general are of value to all practitioners, and his perspective on medical reports and expert evidence are of especial value.' Irish Medical Law and Ethics e-Bulletin
Review of the hardback: 'The book brilliantly brings historical perspectives and up-to-date evidence together. Trimble's work is remarkably intellectual.' Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
Review of the hardback: 'This is a superb book by a well-known expert, clearly written with an enormous amount of information packed into this slim volume. Do not be misled by the title, this is not a step-by-step how-to book, but rather a systematic review grounded in historical, theoretical, phenomenological, and philosophical scholarship. A lifetime of experience and wisdom underlie this book …' Journal of Psychosomatic Research
Review of the hardback: 'The book brilliantly brings historical perspectives and up-to-date evidence together. Trimble's work is remarkably intellectual.' Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
Review of the hardback: 'This is a superb book by a well-known expert, clearly written with an enormous amount of information packed into this slim volume. Do not be misled by the title, this is not a step-by-step how-to book, but rather a systematic review grounded in historical, theoretical, phenomenological, and philosophical scholarship. A lifetime of experience and wisdom underlie this book …' Journal of Psychosomatic Research
Book Description
This 2004 volume is an in-depth, clinically orientated review of somatoform disorders and related clinical presentations and how they present in a medico-legal setting. It is aimed at both clinicians and lawyers dealing with injury claims where these disorders impact much more frequently than is generally recognised.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Edith
Format:Paperback
This book is aimed at people in the legal profession. I was reading for postgraduate academic work. Because it aims to make medical knowledge accessible for people trained in law, it's language is quite understandable.
The author seems to have the primary aim of warning against a compensation culture. He covers the history of somatoform disorders (with a rather questionable understanding on the purpose of medical sociology - my own discipline) and presents his view that the term covers a spectrum of disorders that are essentially the same thing - a view that seems odd given that it involves putting disorders like ME under the same bracket as both Munchausen's (where symptoms are faked due to psychiatric illness). He then criticises the legal system's inadequacies when it comes to dealing with such disorders - and with psychiatric illness in general.
He does not offer any satisfactory explanation for the existence of somatoform disorders (because none exists, yet). Despite mentioning the flaws in assuming that if no physical cause can be found for bodily symptoms, they must be psychiatric in origin, the author himself seems to be working from exactly this assumption. His view of abnormal illness behaviour is also worrying - it implies that seeking medical help for symptomatic relief or desiring a diagnosis to understand an illness someone is experiencing is mentally abnormal. According to this book, it seems that being reassured one is not dying should end the patient-doctor relationship. Quality of life does not factor.
His points about the legal system and its divergences from medical knowledge and philosophy of consciousness are more useful. And no doubt there are people who fake illness (intentionally or otherwise) in order to gain compensation. The advise he offers to help tell these apart from those genuinely ill seems problematic, and it's difficult to believe it could work in practice. The author points out that patients in a legal context are different from those in other medical contexts - which is perhaps something he could have paid more attention to when making generalisations about a number of diverse illnesses.
The author seems to have the primary aim of warning against a compensation culture. He covers the history of somatoform disorders (with a rather questionable understanding on the purpose of medical sociology - my own discipline) and presents his view that the term covers a spectrum of disorders that are essentially the same thing - a view that seems odd given that it involves putting disorders like ME under the same bracket as both Munchausen's (where symptoms are faked due to psychiatric illness). He then criticises the legal system's inadequacies when it comes to dealing with such disorders - and with psychiatric illness in general.
He does not offer any satisfactory explanation for the existence of somatoform disorders (because none exists, yet). Despite mentioning the flaws in assuming that if no physical cause can be found for bodily symptoms, they must be psychiatric in origin, the author himself seems to be working from exactly this assumption. His view of abnormal illness behaviour is also worrying - it implies that seeking medical help for symptomatic relief or desiring a diagnosis to understand an illness someone is experiencing is mentally abnormal. According to this book, it seems that being reassured one is not dying should end the patient-doctor relationship. Quality of life does not factor.
His points about the legal system and its divergences from medical knowledge and philosophy of consciousness are more useful. And no doubt there are people who fake illness (intentionally or otherwise) in order to gain compensation. The advise he offers to help tell these apart from those genuinely ill seems problematic, and it's difficult to believe it could work in practice. The author points out that patients in a legal context are different from those in other medical contexts - which is perhaps something he could have paid more attention to when making generalisations about a number of diverse illnesses.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book has been reprinted by amazon .this fills a gap in helping professionals who are involved in these cases to manage them.It will be of great assistance to all those preparing reports.A very good book
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
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9 of 19 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Trimble is a junk scientist
1 Dec 2009
By Justin Reilly, esq.
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Trimble includes ME (CFS) and Fibromyalgia as somatoform disorders noting that people with ME show "Abnormal Illness Behaviour" like avoiding exercise, remaining bedbound and "often adopting a wheelchair lifestyle and a destiny of dependence." There are over 4,000 articles in peer reviewed medical journals showing frank biological pathology in ME. Numerous researchers since 1986 have found retrovirus infection in ME. Prof. Nancy Klimas, one of the worlds top clinicians and bench scientists in ME and AIDS said recently in the NY Times she would rather have HIV than ME. Trimble's unscientific bias is reprehensible.
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