somatic delusion

* Somatic delusion: processing aimed at identifying what is wrong in one's own body.

The association between increasingly severe illness and the presence of delusions is observed in individuals with somatic delusions in psychotic mood disorders and chronic schizophrenia.

Individuals with somatic delusions are convinced that there is something very wrong with their bodies--that they emit foul odors, have bugs crawling in or on their bodies, or are misshapen and ugly.

All subjects had paranoid delusions; 89% had referential delusions, 53% had grandiose delusions, 32% had somatic delusions, 95% had bizarre delusions, 95% had auditory hallucinations, 68% had visual hallucinations, 26% had tactile hallucinations, 26% had olfactory hallucinations, and 63% had Schneiderian forms of hallucination (such as hearing running commentary or two or more voices conversing with each other).

Individuals with somatic delusions are convinced that there is something very wrong with their bodies - that they emit foul odors, have bugs crawling in or on their bodies, or are misshapen and ugly.