Somatoform disorders are described in ICD-10 as a set of disorders whose main feature is repeated presentation of physical symptoms together with persistent requests for medical investigations, in spite of repeated negative findings and reassurances by doctors that the symptoms have no physical basis. If any physical disorders are present, they do not explain the nature and extent of the symptoms or the distress and preoccupation of the patient.
Similarly, in DSM-V, the newly named category of “somatic symptom and related disorders” covers a set of disorders which all share a common feature: the prominence of somatic symptoms associated with significant distress and impairment.