Psychosomatic disorder and psychosis
1969; Elsevier BV; Volume: 13; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/0022-3999(69)90003-8
ISSN1879-1360
Autores Tópico(s)Electroconvulsive Therapy Studies
ResumoA review of the available literature suggested the relative infrequency of psychosomatic disorder among psychotic patients. The hypothesis was derived that psychosomatic disorder may serve as a defence against psychosis, from which it follows that severe psychotic breakdown (e.g. schizophrenia) should be less common than expected among patients liable to psychosomatic disorder. The introduction of a new item sheet at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals, with a specific heading concern with psychosomatic disorder, afforded an oppoetunity of investigating this hypothesis. From the first 1,034 in-patients scored on the new item sheet, 126 had incidentally had a psychosomatic disorder. These 126 psychosomatic cases matched with a control group for age, sex, social class, marital status and country origin, and the distribution of psychiatric diagnose studied in each case. There were 8 schizophrenics among the 126 psychosomatic cases compared with 16 schizophrenics among the controls. This difference is in the predicted direction, burt not significant. An unexpected incidental significant finding was a high incidence of phobic reaction in the psychosomatic group. The implications of the lower incidence of schiphrenia in the psychosomatic group are discussed; in particular the danger of sudden attack on the psychosomatic symptoms either by psychotherapeutic or pharmacological methods.
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