since I provided background info on Mitochondrial Disorder.
"Today, psychology recognizes two different types of disorders that were historically known as hysteria: dissociative disorders and somatoform disorders.
Somatoform disorder is a class of psychological disorder that involves physical symptoms that do not have a physical cause. These symptoms usually mimic real diseases or injuries. Such disorders include conversion disorder, body dysmporphic disorder and somatization disorder."
http://psychology.about.com/od/hindex/f/hysteria.htm
"DSM-III introduced somatoform disorders as a speculative diagnostic category for somatic symptoms “not explained by a general medical condition.”
Although retained and enlarged in DSMIV, somatoform disorders have been the subject of continuing criticism by both professionals and patients....
There is ambiguity in the stated exclusion criteria. The diagnosis of somatoform disorder requires the
exclusion of general medical conditions. However, there is lack of clarity about which medical diagnoses should be regarded as exclusionary: for example, do medical “functional syndromes,” such as irritable bowel syndrome, count as exclusions? One consequence of this lack of clarity
is that patients may be classified as having both an axis III disorder (for example, irritable bowel syndrome) and an axis I somatoform disorder (such as undifferentiated somatoform disorder or pain disorder) for the very same somatic symptoms. This seems to be ridiculous....
Are Somatoform Disorders Consistent With Evidence About Etiology?
The somatoform criteria and their accompanying text are based largely on the etiological concept of “somatization,” a hypothetical process whereby mental illness manifests
as somatic symptoms. Modern evidence suggests that this conceptualization is simplistic; it favors instead a multifactorial etiology with interacting psychological, social, and biological factors (38) (Figure 1). It is especially important to note that there is increasing evidence that biological factors are relevant (6).... (note: stunning. they have found evidence that biological factors may actually be relevant to clinical symptoms! 
)
http://psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/AJP/4005/847.pdf
Diagnosing Somatoform:
'Exams and Tests
A thorough medical evaluation, including laboratory work and radiologic scans (MRI, CT, ultrasound, x-ray), is done to determine possible causes of the pain.
Somatoform pain disorder is diagnosed when these tests do not reveal a clear source of the pain."
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000922.htm
Because we all know if you can't see it on an MRI, CT, ultrasound or x-ray, it doesn't exist. right.
Diagnosis by exclusion is not diagnosis. Because a doctor, or team of doctors, cannot see the physical cause of an illness does not mean you are mentally ill. Yet the very definition of somatoform disorder is a group of symptoms which a limited number of tests do not explain.
"Complex, poorly understood diseases are often considered to predominately have a psychological basis until proven otherwise. Tuberculosis, hypertension, and stomach ulcers were once considered to be psychosomatic."
http://www.mentalhealthandillness.com/Articles/AllInYourHead.htm
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