SOME FUNCTIONAL PSYCHOSOMATIC DISEASES OF THE GASTROINTESTINAL-TRACT

Using a clinico-psychological method, 170 patients with functional psychosomatic pathology of the alimentary apparatus (functional dysphagia, neurogenic vomiting, gastralgias, the syndrome of the irritable large intestine) were examined. The study showed that these diseases manifested themselves after a considerable psycho-traumatic situation. In women, the role of the stressor was played by disruptions in familial relations while in men, job-related stresses were usually involved. Particular vulnerability of the gastrointestinal tract expressed in episodic dysfunction from early childhood was a predisposing factor in all observations. The personality characteristics of the patients (as judged from the data obtained by techniques of Taylor, Aizenk, M.H.Q., 'incompleted sentences' and the index of the stability-instability of marriage) are characterized by high anxiety, neurotism, depression, and liability to obsessive-phobic reactions. Comparison of the research findings with the relevant results obtained in an organic psychosomatic disease (duodenal ulcer) demonstrated that with further somatization of the affect, the above personality features tend to decrease. According to the data obtained functional psychosomatic disturbances progress to organicones only in 7.4% of cases

Some functional psychosomatic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract

Using a clinico-psychological method, 170 patients with functional psychosomatic pathology of the alimentary apparatus (functional dysphagia, neurogenic vomiting, gastralgias, the syndrome of the irritable large intestine) were examined. The study showed that these diseases manifested themselves after a considerable psycho-traumatic situation. In women, the role of the stressor was played by disruptions in familial relations while in men, job-related stresses were usually involved. Particular vulnerability of the gastrointestinal tract expressed in episodic dysfunction from early childhood was a predisposing factor in all observations. The personality characteristics of the patients (as judged from the data obtained by techniques of Taylor, Aizenk, M.H.Q., 'incompleted sentences' and the index of the stability-instability of marriage) are characterized by high anxiety, neurotism, depression, and liability to obsessive-phobic reactions. Comparison of the research findings with the relevant results obtained in an organic psychosomatic disease (duodenal ulcer) demonstrated that with further somatization of the affect, the above personality features tend to decrease. According to the data obtained functional psychosomatic disturbances progress to organicones only in 7.4% of cases

Psychosomatic disorders of the colon

[No abstract available

Psychogenic and somatic interactions in diabetes mellitus

As a result of 10-year follow-up study of 250 patients with diabetes mellitus, type 1 (58) and type 11 (192) 4 predictable psychological crises have been singled out: the first one was related to reaction to the diagnosis; the second - to the assignment of insulin therapy; the third - to the development of diabetes complications and the fourth - to hospitalization and a subsequent communication with other, more "experienced", patients. In the progress of the disease, an interaction of psychogenic, somatic and personality factors caused development of psycho-somatic cycles (psycho-somatic balancing according to H. Baruk), which is realized in 3 variants: predominantly psychogenic, predominantly somatic and psycho-somatic