BACKGROUND Few studies focus on cross-cultural differences in Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). PURPOSE This study aimed to (1) compare fatigue severity and impairment, somatic complaints, psychological distress, and quality of life (QoL) in a population of Portuguese and Dutch patients; (2) explore the differential contribution of behavioral and cognitive determinants of fatigue severity; and ...

Medically unexplained somatic complaints are among the most common clinical presentations in primary care in developing countries and they are a considerable burden for patients and the healthcare system. They are assumed to be the result of psychosocial factors, and the process by which symptoms are experienced is termed somatisation. Common mental disorders, somatoform disorders and socioecon...

Following the procedure used by Zemore and Eames (1979) with the Beck Depression Inventory, the 20 items of the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale were categorized as either somatic or psychological symptoms of depression. Scores of 179 college students and 462 community-dwelling older adults revealed significant, though small, age differences in somatic complaints. Somatic complaints were espec...

The purpose of this study was to examine the severity of behavioral and emotional problems among adolescents with poor and typical single word reading ability (N = 188) recruited from public schools and followed for a median of 2.4 years. Youth and parents were repeatedly assessed to obtain information regarding the severity and course of symptoms (depression, anxiety, somatic complaints. aggre...

Research on coronary heart disease (CHD) lacks sensitive outcome measures. Health complaints, although subjective in nature, may provide information on the degree of recovery from CHD. The purpose of Study 1 was to identify common health complaints in a group of 535 men (mean age, 57.5 years) with CHD. In the weeks after a coronary event, they frequently reported somatic (e.g., chest pain, dysp...

The association between scores on MMPI-2 scales and cognitive symptom validity test (SVT) failure was investigated in 127 criminal defendants evaluated for competency to stand trial, criminal responsibility, and drug dependence, and 141 personal injury and disability claimants. Results indicated that SVT failure was associated with exaggerated symptom presentation involving somatic complaints i...

Attempts to explain the experience of somatic complaints among children and adolescents suggest that they may in part result from the influence of particular strategies for coping with anger on the longevity of negative emotions. To explore these relationships British (n = 393) and Dutch (n = 299) children completed a modified version of the Behavioral Anger Response Questionnaire (BARQ), and t...

Reports of adolescents' coping with recurrent pain, symptoms of anxiety/depression, and somatic complaints were obtained from a sample of 164 adolescents with recurrent abdominal pain and their parents. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that coping consisted of 3 nonorthogonal factors: Primary Control Engagement Coping (problem solving, emotional expression, and emotional regulation), Secon...

The relationship between negative affectivity (NA, i.e. the Neuroticism trait and transient distress), self-reported medical condition and somatic complaints was assessed in structural equation models also including personality (the Big Five personality domains), socio-demographic, and health behaviour variables. The results indicated that the individual's current distress level and medical con...

Emotion awareness is a key concept related to different child adjustment outcomes. This relationship, influenced by mood, has been found in the preadolescent and adolescent population for somatic complaints. However, little is known in the case of younger children and when other adjustment outcomes are included. The objective of this work is to analyze the contribution of emotion awareness and ...