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Effect of Early Life Experiences and Personality on the Reporting of Psychosocial Distress in General Practice: A Preliminary Investigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Scott Weich ,
Glyn Lewis  and
Anthony Mann
Scott Weich*
Affiliation:
Jointly with London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London WC1 7HT
Glyn Lewis
Affiliation:
Jointly with London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London WC1 7HT
Anthony Mann
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF
*
Dr S. Weich, Section of Epidemiology and General Practice, Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF
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Abstract

Background

About 25% of primary care attenders are ‘somatic presenters’; individuals consulting for physically-attributed somatic symptoms in the presence of psychiatric morbidity. We tested the hypothesis that somatic presenters differed from psychological presenters on measures of personality and childhood experience.

Method

Case-control study of ‘psychological presenters’ and ‘somatic presenters’.

Results

Psychological presenters reported significantly greater insecurity in intimate relationships, and recalled their fathers as significantly less caring and more over-protective, than somatic presenters. These differences remained after adjusting for differences in the severity and duration of psychiatric symptoms.

Conclusions

Personality and childhood experiences may be associated with specific types of adult illness behaviour, independent of associations with the prevalence of psychiatric disorder.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 168 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 116 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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