Somatoform disorders and causal attributions in patients with suspected allergies: Do somatic causal attributions matter?

Groben, Sylvie; Hausteiner, Constanze

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2010.09.002

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 120 publications

(239 reference statements)

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“…There is usually an assumed psychopathological substrate for this clinical concern, as there is an especially strong association between PRAs, unexplained symptomatology and psychiatric diagnoses [25,[36][37][38][39]. Stemming from this observation, PRAs have been incorporated into diagnostic criteria for various somatoform disorders (SFD) [25,40] and other Axis I diagnoses [41]. Such diagnoses, including somatization [13], depression [13][14][15][16][17]12,18], anxiety [13,15,16,18,22] and panic disorders [13], have been associated with poor outcome after lower extremity arthroplasty, as have lower Short Form-36 mental component summary scores [14,15,[19][20][21] and pain catastrophisizing [23,24].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patient-Reported Allergies Are Associated With Poorer Patient Satisfaction and Outcomes After Lower Extremity Arthroplasty: A Retrospective Cohort Study

McLawhorn

Bjerke-Kroll

Blevins

et al. 2015

The Journal of Arthroplasty

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patient-Reported Allergies Are Associated With Poorer Patient Satisfaction and Outcomes After Lower Extremity Arthroplasty: A Retrospective Cohort Study

McLawhorn

Bjerke-Kroll

Blevins

et al. 2015

The Journal of Arthroplasty

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“…Hiller et al () came to the diverging result that patients with somatoform disorders attributed symptoms more often to mental or emotional problems than to somatic diseases. Only one study did not find any specificity in the attribution style of patients with somatoform disorders compared with non‐somatoform controls (Groben & Hausteiner, ). Furthermore, the tendency to attribute bodily symptoms to psychological reasons seems to be linked to increased general anxiety and depression in somatoform disorders (Hiller et al, ; Martin et al, ; Rief et al, ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, the existing studies addressing symptom attribution are not satisfactory and do not allow reliable conclusions to be drawn on the importance of misattributions in hypochondriasis, for the following reasons: several studies investigating symptom attribution are based on samples that do not meet the diagnostic criteria for hypochondriasis, but only suffer from increased health anxiety as assessed by questionnaires (e.g., MacLeod et al, 1998;Sensky et al, 1998). Other studies do not investigate hypochondriasis separately, but in combination with other somatoform disorders (Duddu et al, 2003;Groben & Hausteiner, 2011;Henningsen et al, 2005;Hiller et al, 2010;Martin et al, 2007;Rief et al, 2004). In addition, most existing research lacks clinical control groups and therefore does not enable a meaningful differentiation to be made from related disorders (e.g., Barsky, Coeytaux, Sarnie, & Cleary, 1993;Haenen, de Jong, Schmidt, Stevens, & Visser, 2000;Marcus, 1999;Marcus & Church, 2003).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Attribution of Somatic Symptoms in Hypochondriasis

Neng

Weck

2013

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

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The misinterpretation of bodily symptoms as an indicator of a serious illness is a key feature of the criteria and the cognitive-behavioural models of hypochondriasis. Previous research suggests that individuals suffering from health anxiety endorse attributions of physical disease, whereas persons with elevated general anxiety have the tendency to attribute psychological causes to their symptoms. However, whether a somatic attribution style is specific to patients with hypochondriasis, as opposed to those with anxiety disorders, has not yet been investigated and is therefore part of the present study. Fifty patients with hypochondriasis, 50 patients with a primary anxiety disorder and 50 healthy participants were presented with nine common bodily sensations and had to spontaneously attribute possible causes to the symptoms. Patients with hypochondriasis differed from patients with anxiety disorders and healthy controls in giving significantly fewer normalizing explanations, but attributing more often in terms of moderate or serious diseases. Patients with anxiety disorders also made significantly fewer normalizing attributions and more somatic attributions to a severe illness than healthy controls. There were no differences between the groups in the frequency of psychological attributions and somatic attributions concerning mild diseases. The present study demonstrates that hypochondriasis is associated with a disorder-specific attribution style connecting somatic symptoms primarily with moderate and serious diseases. By contrast, normalizing attributions are largely omitted from consideration by patients with hypochondriasis. The findings conform with the cognitive conception of hypochondriasis and support the strategy of modifying symptom attributions, as practiced in cognitive-behavioural therapy.

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“…The two most common symptom attributions of depression and anxiety are psychosocial and biomedical (Groben & Hausteiner, ; Haslam, ; Hugo, Boshoff, Traut, Zungu‐Dirwayi & Stein, ; Lee, ; Rief, Nanke, Emmerich, Bender & Zech, ). Examples of psychosocial attribution are life stressors, interpersonal problems, and work issues.…”

Section: Somatization and Symptom Attributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ambivalence over emotional expression and symptom attribution are associated with self-reported somatic symptoms in Singaporean school adolescents

Lee

2012

Asian Journal of Social Psychology

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Although somatization is common across cultures, its meanings may differ as culture shapes emotional experience. Thus, instead of treating somatization as a form of psychopathology, it is more useful to conceptualize it as an idiom of distress, and how complaints of somatic symptoms are related to social relationships, patterns of emotional expression and symptom attribution in a cultural context. This study seeks to explore whether ambivalence over emotional expression and causal attribution would shed light on the meanings of somatization among Asian adolescents. Three hundred secondary school adolescents in Singapore participated in this study. The main results show that emotional ambivalence, biomedical and Traditional Chinese Medicinal causal beliefs, and magical attribution contributed to additional variance in somatic symptoms over and above the variance explained by emotional distress. These findings are discussed from both psychological and cultural perspectives.

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Somatoform disorders and causal attributions in patients with suspected allergies: Do somatic causal attributions matter?

Cited by 18 publications

References 120 publications

Patient-Reported Allergies Are Associated With Poorer Patient Satisfaction and Outcomes After Lower Extremity Arthroplasty: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Patient-Reported Allergies Are Associated With Poorer Patient Satisfaction and Outcomes After Lower Extremity Arthroplasty: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Attribution of Somatic Symptoms in Hypochondriasis

Ambivalence over emotional expression and symptom attribution are associated with self-reported somatic symptoms in Singaporean school adolescents

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