You wrote:

"Current medical status: In Jan/05 I started to get sharp (& sometimes dull) pain in the left chest area. Went to the ER and was checked to make sure I wasn't having a heart attack. Heart blood work done- negative. Saw family dr. who sent me to lung specialist. Breathing test, x-ray and lung scan performed.--everything fine. Family dr. then sent me to cardiologist. Echo and stress tests performed. Told that heart muscle was a bit too thick but that would not cause any pain, even though I was experiencing terrible pain near the end of stress test. Told to come back in 3 years (spring /09). Fam. dr. sent me back to the lung specialist. Stress test on lungs and CT scan (chest) performed-- everything fine. All of this had taken part between Jan/05 and fall/06 (long waiting times to see various drs., getting tests done, waiting for results, etc...) Since spring-early summer/07, this pain has become more frequent plus I now have dull pain on the right side of chest, pressure feeling in center of chest, feeling of something caught in throat (treated for ulcers for this in /01) frequent palpatations (skipped, extra beat, not sure what to call it),heartburn (taking Nexium for that), the odd "tearing" sensation about an inch from center left of chest radiating upward, the occasional upper back pain (both sides), and constant lightheadedness with frequent sudden piercing headaches that only last 5-10 mins. I had an upper GI in Sept. that did not show anything. And I had seen a gastro specialist just last week (end Nov). He is treating me for the heartburn but does not see any correlation with my other symptoms."


All the cardiac, lung and gastric diagnostic procedures that you and your doctors performed revealed no organic lesions on the organs. Negative diagnostic tests indicate that the symptoms you report (chest pain and pressure, lightheadedness, feeling of palpitations, feeling of having something in the throat…) are not objective (real) but are subjective or a product of your mind. Such a disorder where the patient feels/senses symptoms of a diseases that is not present in the body is called "somatoform disorder", or hypochondria. Hypochondria is a kind of neurotic disorder. To treat hypochondria, you can request help from a mental health doctor.




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