Somatization is a tendency to experience and communicate psychological distress as bodily and organic symptoms and to seek medical help for them.[1][2] More commonly expressed, it is the generation of physical symptoms of a psychiatric condition such as anxiety. The term somatization was introduced by Wilhelm Stekel in 1924.[3]
Somatization is a worldwide phenomenon.[4] A somatization spectrum can be identified, with chronic cases being classified as somatization disorder.[5]