adjective
psychosomatic
sigh-koh-suh-MAT-ik/ˌsaɪkəʊsəˈmætɪk/
Involving physical symptoms caused or influenced by mental or emotional factors.
Anxiety before the presentation contributes to the person's psychosomatic stomach discomfort.
Etymology
“Mind” joined to “bodily” originally described the relationship between mind and body generally. The selected sense narrows that relationship to physical symptoms influenced by mental or emotional factors.
In context
change the name of the place home for incurables that's enough in itself to cause death from psychosomatic trauma
More examples
- Stress at work makes his psychosomatic symptoms worse.
- Counseling helps her manage the anxiety behind her psychosomatic headaches.
- The doctor checks for other causes before calling the nausea psychosomatic.
Forms
psychosomatic
Similar words
- psychogenic
- Identifies mental factors as the cause, rather than an influence.
- stress-related
- Specifically links symptoms to stress, not other mental factors.