Search results for "Somatoform Disorders"
showing 10 items of 67 documents
Cognitive Biases in Pathological Health Anxiety
2016
Pathological health anxiety refers to the medically unfounded fear of suffering from a severe illness. Differences in cognitive processes related to attention, memory, and evaluation of health threat have been hypothesized to underlie pathological health anxiety. In no study, however, have researchers systematically and simultaneously assessed different cognitive biases. On the basis of the idea that multiple cognitive biases simultaneously contribute to psychopathology (the combined-cognitive-bias hypothesis), we compared 88 patients with pathological health anxiety, 52 patients with depressive disorder, and 52 healthy participants on their performance in several cognitive tasks involving…
HiTOP Assessment of the Somatoform Spectrum and Eating Disorders
2021
We report on Phase 1 efforts of the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) measurement subgroup tasked with developing provisional scales for the somatoform spectrum and eating disorders. In Study 1, items were written to assess five somatoform spectrum constructs (bodily distress symptoms, conversion symptoms, health anxiety, disease conviction, and somatic preoccupation). Scale development analyses were conducted on 550 university students. The conversion symptom items were too infrequently endorsed and were set aside for Phase 2. Analyses of the other items yielded four scales corresponding closely to their hypothesized structure. In Study 2, we delineated 15 specific feeding a…
Influence of appearance-related TV commercials on body image state.
2008
This study investigates the influence of media exposure on body image state in eating-disordered (ED) patients. The attitudinal and perceptual components of body image are assessed, as well as any associations with dysfunctional cognitions and behavioral consequences. Twenty-five ED patients and 25 non-ED controls (ND) viewed commercials either featuring appearance (AC; 5 min) or not featuring appearance (NC; 5 min). Both perceptual and attitudinal body image components changed markedly after the AC condition for ED patients, compared with the ND group and NC condition. Cognitions referring to dietary restraint and internalization/social comparison also changed significantly in ED patients…
Levels and variables associated with psychological distress during confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic in a community sample of Spanish adults
2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic's consequences and the state of alarm, literature has shown that people worldwide have experienced severe stressors that have been associated with increased prevalence of emotional distress. In this study, we explored psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and somatization symptoms) using an online survey platform in a sample of 1,781 Spanish adults during the confinement due to COVID-19, relationships between distress and sleep problems, affect, pain, sleep, emotional regulation, gender, type of housing, history of psychopathology, and living alone during the confinement, and differences depending on demographic and psychological variables. Results showed…
The association between different domains of quality of life and symptoms in primary care patients with emotional disorders
2018
AbstractDespite the importance of quality of life (QoL) in primary care patients with emotional disorders, the specific influence of the symptoms of these disorders and the sociodemographic characteristics of patients on the various QoL domains has received scant attention. The aim of the present study of primary care patients with emotional disorders was to analyse the associations between four different QoL domains and the most prevalent clinical symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety and somatization), while controlling for sociodemographic variables. A total of 1241 participants from 28 primary care centres in Spain were assessed with the following instruments: the Patient Health Questionn…
Determinants of health-related quality of life in patients with persistent somatoform pain disorder
2003
Background. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has been investigated widely in patients with chronic pain, but no study has focused particularly on the situation of patients with persistent somatoform pain disorder. Aims. To survey the impairments of patients with somatoform pain disorder (ICD-10: F45.4) and to predict pain-related impairments and HRQOL on the basis of coping styles. Method. A consecutively recruited sample of 100 patients (65% female) was examined in a cross-sectional study. Questionnaires were administered to assess pain intensity (visual analogue scale), pain-related disabilities (Pain Disability Index), quality of life (Short-Form Health Survey-36), and ways of copi…
Domain-specific associations between disability and depression, anxiety, and somatization in primary care patients
2018
Abstract This study explores the associations between different disability domains and the most prevalent symptoms of mental disorders in primary care patients (i.e. depression, anxiety, and somatization). A total of 1241 participants from 28 primary care centres completed self-report measures of depression, anxiety, and somatization. This same sample also completed the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) to assess functional impairment in work, social life, and family life domains. Associations between the symptoms and each disability domain were examined using hierarchical regression analyses. Depression emerged as the strongest predictor of all three disability domains. Somatization was assoc…
Improving heartbeat perception in patients with medically unexplained symptoms reduces symptom distress.
2013
Abstract Distortions in interoceptive accuracy have been linked to somatoform disorders. In line with cognitive theories of symptom formation in somatoform disorders, decreases in interoceptive accuracy have recently been observed to co-occur with more severe symptom reports. The current study tested the hypothesis that experimentally increasing interoceptive accuracy should decrease symptom severity in somatoform disorders. Twenty-nine patients with somatoform disorders were instructed in a newly developed heartbeat perception training procedure. Heartbeat perception, as a proxy for interoceptive accuracy, was assessed with a mental tracking task. Although there were no significant differe…
Searching for a Gastrointestinal Subgroup Within the Somatoform Disorders
2001
The authors examined whether patients suffering from functional gastrointestinal symptoms constitute a separate group within the broader concept of the somatoform disorders. The authors compared 103 patients with a severe gastrointestinal syndrome, 220 patients with a somatization syndrome according to DSM-IV, and 250 clinical control subjects with nonsomatoform mental disorders. The gastrointestinal group showed more catastrophizing thinking, complained more about autonomic sensations, felt bodily weaker, was less tolerant towards bodily discomfort, had developed more hypochondriacal fears and behaviors, was more depressed, and was more severely disabled in different areas of psychosocial …
Cerebral activation in patients with somatoform pain disorder exposed to pain and stress: an fMRI study.
2006
Patients with somatoform pain disorders are supposed to suffer from an early acquired defect in stress regulation. In order to look for common alterations of the pain- and stress-responsive cortical areas, we prospectively recorded cerebral activations induced by pin-prick pain, by cognitive stress and emotional stress using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a group of 17 patients and an age-matched control group. In addition, the hippocampal volumes of both groups were measured. Patients showed increased activations of the known pain-processing areas (thalamus, basal ganglia, operculo-insular cortex), but also of some prefrontal, temporal and parietal regions during first pai…