Psychosomatic Symptoms in Adolescents: Understanding Mechanisms, Improving Assessment, and Enhancing Interventions

Adolescence represents a uniquely sensitive developmental window in which rapid neurobiological, psychological, and social transformations converge. It is during this period that the intimate coupling of mind and body becomes particularly visible. Psychosomatic symptoms, ranging from chronic pain, fatigue, headaches, and gastrointestinal complaints to functional neurological symptoms, are among the most prevalent yet least well-integrated presentations in adolescent mental health care. These symptoms often precipitate prolonged medical investigations, fragmented care pathways, and delayed recognition of underlying psychological and relational processes, with profound implications for functioning, identity formation, and family dynamics.Contemporary research increasingly challenges the notion of psychosomatic symptoms as “medically unexplained.” Instead, these presentations are now understood as emergent expressions of complex biopsychosocial processes involving altered stress physiology, interoceptive sensitivity, emotion regulation, neuroimmune signaling, and developmental vulnerability. Adolescents may be especially susceptible to these pathways due to heightened neural plasticity, ongoing maturation of regulatory systems, and exposure to cumulative stressors, including trauma, academic pressure, digital overload, and social marginalization.This Research Topic seeks to advance an integrative, developmentally informed understanding of psychosomatic symptoms in adolescence. We invite contributions that illuminate mechanisms across multiple levels, including neurobiological substrates, psychophysiological markers, cognitive–affective processes, family and peer dynamics, and sociocultural contexts. Particular emphasis is placed on emerging approaches that bridge disciplinary divides—such as predictive processing models, embodied cognition, psychoneuroimmunology, and network-based formulations of psychopathology.Equally central is the need to refine how psychosomatic symptoms are identified and assessed. We encourage work on innovative diagnostic frameworks, dimensional and transdiagnostic tools, ecological momentary assessment, and digital phenotyping methods that capture the dynamic interplay between affect, physiology, and context. Such approaches hold promise for reducing diagnostic ambiguity and shortening the pathway to appropriate care.Finally, this Topic aims to foreground interventions that are developmentally attuned, integrative, and empirically grounded. Submissions may examine psychotherapeutic, family-based, school-linked, and interdisciplinary models of care, as well as novel digital or preventive interventions. We welcome original research, systematic reviews, clinical trials, theoretical contributions, and translational perspectives. Our goal is to foster a comprehensive dialogue that informs best practices, reduces diagnostic delays, and ultimately improves the prognosis and well-being of young people affected by these often misunderstood and debilitating symptoms. By fostering dialogue across psychiatry, psychology, pediatrics, neuroscience, and public health, this Research Topic seeks to move beyond dualistic frameworks and toward a coherent science of adolescent psychosomatic health, one that improves recognition, reduces stigma, and ultimately enhances the well-being and life trajectories of affected young people. Topic editors: Meenakshi Shukla, Alessia Renzi Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77228/psychosomatic-symptoms-in-adolescents-understanding-mechanisms-improving-assessment-and-enhancing-interventions