Personality Dysfunction Among Somatizing Patients

To examine the nature and extent of personality dysfunction related to somatization, the authors administered the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory to a series of somatizing and nonsomatizing patients in a general medicine clinic. A greater percentage of s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychosomatics (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2001-07, Vol.42 (4), p.320-329
Main Authors: Noyes, Russell, Langbehn, Douglas R., Happel, Rachel L., Stout, Lori R., Muller, Barbara A., Longley, Susan L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Biological and medical sciences
Comorbidity
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - diagnosis
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - psychology
Personality disorders
Personality Disorders - diagnosis
Personality Disorders - psychology
Personality Inventory
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Somatoform Disorders - psychology
Somatoform disorders. Psychosomatics
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Summary:To examine the nature and extent of personality dysfunction related to somatization, the authors administered the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory to a series of somatizing and nonsomatizing patients in a general medicine clinic. A greater percentage of somatizers met criteria for one or more DSM-IV personality disorders, especially obsessive-compulsive disorder, than did control patients. Somatizers also differed from control patients with respect to self-defeating, depressive, and negativistic personality traits and scored higher on the dimension of neuroticism and lower on the dimension of agreeableness. In addition, initial and facultative somatizers showed more personality pathology than true somatizers. These findings suggest that certain personality disorders and traits contribute to somatization by way of increased symptom reporting and care-seeking behavior.
ISSN:0033-3182
1545-7206
DOI:10.1176/appi.psy.42.4.320