Subjective Body Complaints as an Indicator of Somatization in Elderly Patients

Schneider, Gerd‐Helge; Wachter, Michael; Driesch, Georg; Kruse, Andreas; Nehen, Hans Georg; Heuft, Gereon

doi:10.1176/appi.psy.44.2.91

Cited by 20 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Individuals with high state and trait NA report more symptoms than one would expect from their underlying disease (Cohen et al, 1995; Watson & Pennebaker, 1989), and individuals high in trait PA report fewer and less severe symptoms when objective markers of disease are held constant (Cohen et al, 2003). Higher trait levels of PA and SWB have been associated with fewer symptoms and better self-reported health among patients with Lyme disease (Elkins et al, 1999), lupus (Grootscholten et al, 1988), multiple sclerosis (Gatten, Brookings, & Bolton, 1993), coronary artery disease (Sullivan, LaCroix, Russo, & Walker, 2001), upper respiratory infection (Cohen et al, 2003; Takkouche, Regueira, & Gestal-Otero, 2001), older individuals (Brissette, Leventhal, & Leventhal, 2003; Edwards & Klemmack, 1973; Palmore & Luikart, 1972; Spreitzer & Snyder, 1974), as well as among hospital inpatients and outpatients for a variety of illnesses (e.g., De Gucht, Fischler, & Heiser, 2004; Kvaal & Patodia, 2000; Schneider et al, 2003). In general, those with mild illnesses (i.e., allergic disorder) are not less happy or more dissatisfied (trait) than healthy individuals (Roysamb et al, 2003).…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does positive affect influence health?

Pressman

Cohen

2005

Psychological Bulletin

1,735

1,566

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This review highlights consistent patterns in the literature associating positive affect (PA) and physical health. However, it also raises serious conceptual and methodological reservations. Evidence suggests an association of trait PA and lower morbidity and of state and trait PA and decreased symptoms and pain. Trait PA is also associated with increased longevity among older community-dwelling individuals. The literature on PA and surviving serious illness is inconsistent. Experimentally inducing intense bouts of activated state PA triggers short-term rises in physiological arousal and associated (potentially harmful) effects on immune, cardiovascular, and pulmonary function. However, arousing effects of state PA are not generally found in naturalistic ambulatory studies in which bouts of PA are typically less intense and often associated with health protective responses. A theoretical framework to guide further study is proposed.Keywords: positive affect, mortality, morbidity, health, emotions A cheerful heart is good medicine.-Proverbs 17:22Self-help books, popular magazines, and Sunday newspaper supplements have suggested for years that positive affect (PA) can improve people's health. However, this hypothesis has been relatively ignored in research on psychological predictors of health. For example, a search of PsycINFO revealed that there are over 20 times more studies on depression and health than there are on happiness and health. Although the recent interest in "positive psychology" has focused attention on the potential benefits of positive feelings (e.g., Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), there has been little critical discussion of the evidence linking PA to physical health. In this article, we review the literature examining the association between measures of PA and markers of physical health status, examine the conceptual and methodological weaknesses in the existing literature, and discuss how PA could get "under the skin" to influence health. PAWe define PA as the feelings that reflect a level of pleasurable engagement with the environment (Clark, Watson, & Leeka, 1989) such as happiness, joy, excitement, enthusiasm, and contentment. These can be brief, longer lasting, or more stable traitlike feelings. Although some use the terms affect, mood, and emotion to distinguish duration, these uses are not applied consistently in the literature, and thus we use these terms interchangeably. We, however, distinguish between studies using measures that assess more stable disposition-like PA, which we refer to as trait PA, and those measuring or manipulating relatively short-term bouts of positive emotions, which we refer to as state PA.To date, reviews examining associations between positive psychological constructs and health outcomes have been broad in scope, including traits such as self-esteem, extraversion, purpose, mastery, and optimism along with PA (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005;Ryff, 2003;Salovey, Rothman, Detweiler, & Steward, 2000;Zautra, 2003). Hence, it has been difficult to separate t...

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Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does positive affect influence health?

Pressman

Cohen

2005

Psychological Bulletin

1,735

1,566

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“…Finally, somatic burden was assessed in this study based on self-report instruments. Although previous research has shown that subjective body complaints can be interpreted as a sign of somatization ( 67 ), future studies could examine medical records and health care utilization for a clearer perspective.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cyberchondria, but not preventive behavior, mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and somatic burden: Evidence from Russia

Zolotareva

2022

Front. Psychiatry

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BackgroundThere is extensive available research on the relationship between fear of COVID-19 pandemic and physical symptoms. This study was the first to examine the cyberchondria and COVID-19 preventive behavior as mediators of this relationship.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted from October to December 2021, during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. The participants were 2,011 Russian-speaking volunteers aged 18 years and older. They completed questionnaires on somatic burden, cyberchondria, COVID-19 preventive behavior, and fear of COVID-19 pandemic. Mediation analysis was used to explore the mediating roles of cyberchondria and preventive behavior in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and somatic burden.ResultsFear of COVID-19 positively predicted somatic burden, cyberchondria, and COVID-19 preventive behavior. Mediation analysis showed that the relationship between fear of COVID-19 pandemic and somatic burden was mediated by cyberchondria (effect = 0.08, bootstrapping SE = 0.01, bootstrapping 95% CI [0.08, 0.12]), but not COVID-19 preventive behavior (effect = 0.02, bootstrapping SE = 0.01, bootstrapping 95% CI [0.00, 0.05]).ConclusionThe findings suggest that cyberchondria had negative effects on somatic burden during the COVID-19 pandemic. The knowledge of the mediating role of cyberchondria may be used by health care workers when consulting persons with physical health complaints and psychosomatic disorders.

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“…In the present study, we used the total score as the criterion measure, which is known to be strongly correlated with perceived and chronic stress (Petrowski et al, 2022). The GBB-8 presents excellent psychometric properties and is comparable to the 24-item long version (GBB-24; Kliem et al, 2017), which has been extensively used to assess somatic symptom strain in research and clinical settings (e.g., Goldbeck & Schmid, 2003; Maglakelidze et al, 2011; Schneider et al, 2003; Wilz & Fink-Heitz, 2008), also in relation to work-related stress (Fischer et al, 2016). While the GBB-24 has been adopted mostly in German-speaking populations, the GBB-8 has already been translated into English (Petrowski et al, 2022) and Polish (Larionow et al, 2022).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diagnostic Utility of the Perceived Occupational Stress Scale

Marcatto,

Di Blas,

Ferrante

2023

European Journal of Psychological Assessment

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The Perceived Occupational Stress (POS) scale has been recently developed to measure workers’ perception of feeling stressed at work. This cross-sectional study aimed to further study the practical applicability of the POS scale by testing its diagnostic utility for identifying workers with severe somatic symptom strain. A sample of 171 Italian workers filled out a survey containing the POS and the short form of the Giessen Subjective Complaints List (GBB-8). The POS scale was strongly associated with the GBB-8 ( r = .70, p < .001; β = .71, p < .001), and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed its excellent diagnostic accuracy (area under the curve, AUC = .83, p < .001), with a POS value of 3.50 being the optimal cut-off for detecting severe somatic symptoms. Overall, the results show that the POS scale is an economic and non-intrusive tool for identifying workers at high risk of severe psychosomatic strain. Limitations of this study include the use of self-report measures and of a convenience sample, which could lead to common method and selection biases. Future research should re-evaluate the predictive usefulness of the POS scale as a predictor of other outcomes of work-related stress such as anxiety and depression, performance, and turnover intentions.

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Subjective Body Complaints as an Indicator of Somatization in Elderly Patients

Cited by 20 publications

References 34 publications

Does positive affect influence health?

Does positive affect influence health?

Cyberchondria, but not preventive behavior, mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and somatic burden: Evidence from Russia

Diagnostic Utility of the Perceived Occupational Stress Scale

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