Anger, Social Dysfunction and Psychopathological Distress in Hearing- Impaired Patients

Abstract

It has been demonstrated that subjects suffering from hearing impairment present significant emotional reactions and socio-situational limitations when compared to controls (Monzani et al., 2008).

Aim:

To evaluate the relationship between hearing loss severity, anger expression, perceived handicap, social dysfunction and psychopathological distress in adult patients suffering from acquired hearing loss.

Method:

297 hearing impaired subjects were consecutively recruited by the ENT Clinic of the Modena and Reggio Emilia University from 1/1/07. Each patient were submitted to pure-tones audiometry and the pure tone average threshold (PTA) was calculated over 0.5,1, 2, 4 kHz. Socio-demographic data were collected (age, educational level, employment, marital status). Every patient was also administered the following questionnaire in their Italian validated version: Social Functioning Questionnaire, Brief Symptom Inventory, Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults, State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2. Descriptive statistics were used to assess sociodemographic data; Pearson correlation coefficient was used to investigate relationships between test scores and hearing loss level.

Results:

Mean age was 53.79 (SD ±13.65); 44.8% were males. Hearing impairment level didn't significantly relate with objective social functioning level (p=.311), but with the subjective emotional and socio-situational perceived handicap (p=.000); moreover it significantly correlates with individual psychopathological tendency to phobic reaction (p=.006) and to anger general expression index (p=.021). Furthermore it directly relates with state anger (p=.021) and inversely relates with external expressed anger (p=.023).

Conclusion:

Anger felt but not expressed might be a key element in determining subjective social impairment in hearing loss patients and contribute to their well-known psychological distress.