0000000000331977
AUTHOR
Renáta Szemerszky
Modern health worries and idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields are associated with paranoid ideation.
Paranoid ideation is assumed to characterize worries about possible harmful effects of modern technologies (MHWs) and idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEIs), such as IEI attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF). Empirical evidence on these associations is scarce.In a cross-sectional on-line survey, participants of a community sample (n = 700; mean age: 28.4 ± 12.0; 434 females) completed the Somatosensory Amplification Scale, the Modern Health Worries Scale, and the Paranoid Ideation scale of the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised. They were considered IEI-EMF if (1) they categorized themselves so, (2) they had experienced symptoms that they attributed to the exposure to electromagnet…
Psychological models of development of idiopathic environmental intolerances: Evidence from longitudinal population-based data.
Abstract The origin of idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEIs) is an open question. According to the psychological approaches, various top-down factors play a dominant role in the development of IEIs. The general psychopathology model assumes a propensity towards mental ill-health (negative affectivity) increases the probability of developing IEIs. The attribution model emphasizes the importance of mistaken attribution of experienced somatic symptoms; thus, more symptoms should lead to more IEIs. Finally, the nocebo model highlights the role of expectations in the development of IEIs. In this case, worries about the harmful effects of environmental factors are assumed to evoke IEIs. We…
No evidence for interactions between modern health worries, negative affect, and somatic symptom distress in general populations
Three theoretically grounded hypotheses were tested that predict interactions between modern health worries (MHWs), somatic symptom distress, and negative affect.Cross-sectional.Hypotheses were tested in a representative German sample (According to the results obtained from the two samples, MHWs were only weakly associated with somatic symptoms and negative affectivity. Frequentist and Bayesian linear regression analyses showed an interaction only in one case. All other factors being equal, individuals high on somatic symptoms and MHWs did not experience disproportionately less anxiety or depression; those high on MHWs and negative affect were characterized by disproportionately more sympto…