MMPI-2 profiles of 93 presurgical intractable epilepsy patients were examined using Ward’s method of cluster analysis. Three clusters were identified. The means of each cluster suggest that 45% of the sample had minimal psychological complaints, 30% presented with generalized clinical elevations, and 25% of the patients had profiles of intermediate elevations with a tendency to emphasize somati...

OBJECTIVES Research suggests that the majority of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) patients exhibit both cognitive and emotional dysfunction within the first weeks of injury, followed by symptom resolution 3-6 months postinjury. The neuronal correlates of said dysfunction are difficult to detect with standard clinical neuroimaging, complicating differential diagnosis and early identification ...

Researchers have found that a variety of pain syndromes are related to a history of childhood abuse including chronic headaches and pelvic pain, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome. In one recent German study, “almost all” of the community sample of female sexual abuse survivors reported pain symptoms and other somatic complaints. In fact, pain was the most commonly occurring symptom (Te...

Somatization refers to the persistence of multiple physical complaints that cannot be attributed to a medical illness. Increasing evidence suggests that activation of the proinflammatory cytokine network can lead to a constellation of behaviors, “sickness behavior,” which might underlie the pathophysiology of certain psychiatric disorders. In particular, depressive disorders, as well as somatof...

The prevalence of non-psychotic 'minor' mental morbidity in primary care setting is high. They often go undetected due to several factors in the patient and the clinician. Studying personal, social and clinical characteristics of non-psychotic patients attending a general hospital outpatient department several factors could be identified which might be helpful in screening of such patients. The...

This study explored the changes in complaint-related cognitions and anxiety of 110 consecutive out-patients with functional abdominal complaints (irritable bowel syndrome), during a series of consultations. Patients' anxiety, fear of cancer, somatic attribution concerning intestines or stomach and catastrophizing cognitions appeared to diminish significantly during the consulting period. Positi...

complaints, attributing significance (or reassurance) to these complaints, facilitating (or otherwise) the children’s use of health care facilities and their involvement in (or withdrawal from) normal life activities. Other developmental factors, especially the level of cognitive and verbal competence, have long been recognised as important determinants of the ability to express emotional distr...

somatization, the translation of emotions into somatic problems or complaints. It is well documented—though still largely unrecognized in practice—that somatization accounts for a large proportion of office visits to primary care physicians as well as specialists, leading to unnecessary testing, treatment, and hospitalization, disability and corporate financial loss, likely earlier mortality, a...