Key result
Depressive symptomatology was a stronger independent predictor of inflated physical symptom recall and concurrent physical symptoms than neuroticism/negative affect in community-residing women.
Why the study?
Does depressive symptomatology predict inflated physical symptom reports better than neuroticism in community-residing women?
Observational (n=108)
Does depressive symptomatology predict inflated physical symptom reports better than neuroticism in community-residing women?
Depressive symptomatology is a stronger predictor of inflated physical symptom reporting than neuroticism, suggesting a need to refine the symptom perception hypothesis.
Depressive symptoms may better predict inflated recall than neuroticism in women; leaves open causal links and clinical utility pending prospective data.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the roles of depressive symptomatology and neuroticism/negative affect (N/NA) on common physical symptom reporting in a sample of community residents. METHODS: Community-residing women (n = 108) participated in a combined concurrent-retrospective design. Physical symptoms were assessed concurrently over 21 consecutive days followed by a retrospective assessment of the collective symptom experience for the same time period. RESULTS: Based on evidence of differences in cognitive processing of emotion-relevant material, we predicted and found that depressive symptomatology (at baseline) was a stronger predictor of inflated physical symptom recall than N/NA. Depressive symptomatology was also a stronger, independent predictor of concurrent physical symptoms. Notably, these results were obtained even when physical depressive symptoms in both the physical symptom checklist and the baseline depression assessment were eliminated. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the classic symptom perception hypothesis should be refined and operationalized in terms of depressive symptomatology rather than N/NA. This study demonstrates how cognitive-affective processing differences associated with depressive symptomatology can shed additional light on the psychology of symptom perception. Implications for treatment seeking, medical diagnoses, and treatment decisions are discussed.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Howren et al. (2009) reported an observational. Depressive symptomatology vs. Neuroticism/negative affect (N/NA) was evaluated on Inflated physical symptom recall and concurrent physical symptoms. Depressive symptomatology was a stronger independent predictor of inflated physical symptom recall and concurrent physical symptoms than neuroticism/negative affect in community-residing women.
Synapse has enriched 4 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: