Somatization

Reading of Health Metaphysics by Valcapelli Health Metaphysics searches present the psycho-emotional causes of diseases that affects the body. This study was published in a series of 5 volumes entitled "Health Metaphysics". Book Publisher Vida e Consciência, with approximately 200.000 exemplars sold. The goal of this work is to make people aware that they are more than just a body; they are a mind, an emotion, a feeling and the essence of Being (denominated soul or spirit), those internal components are operating in all moments of life.

The Somatoform Disorders are a group of problems in which people suffer from somatic symptoms or worry about bodily illness or deformity that cannot be accounted for by an organic medical condition or another psychiatric disorder such as depression or anxiety.  In this chapter we review what is known about the Somatoform Disorders. We argue that, just as the notion of ‘psychophysiological disorder’ has been replaced by that of “Psychological Factors Affecting Physical Condition”—a shift from a categorical, disorder-based scheme to one of diagnosing specific situations—so too should the Somatoform Disorders be reconceptualized as symptoms or patterns of illness behavior that interact with other medical and psychiatric conditions. As illness behavior, Somatoform Disorders can be best typified and understood in terms of dimensions rather than categories, processes rather than symptoms and signs, and social contexts rather than isolated behaviors. We think this dimensional and contextual approach to somatization not only fits the research data better than the individual psychopathology oriented perspective, it also has useful implications for clinical assessment and treatment. Rethinking the category of Somatoform Disorders from a social and cultural perspective will allow us to avoid some of the negative attitudes and stigmatization that plague patients who receive these diagnoses

A recent study—comparing those with depression, somatization, comorbid depression and somatization, and controls—showed specific changes in the tryptophan catabolite (TRYCAT) pathway in somatization, specifically lowered tryptophan and kynurenic acid, and increased kynurenine/kynurenic acid (KY/KA) and kynurenine/
tryptophan ratios. These findings suggest that somatization and depression with somatization are characterized by increased activity of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase and disorders in kynurenine aminotransferase activity, which carry a neurotoxic potential.
This chapter (2) reviews the evidence that the TRYCAT pathway may play a pathophysiological role in the onset of somatization and depression with somatization and, furthermore, suggests treatment options based on identified pathophysiological processes.
Lowered plasma tryptophan may be associated with enhanced pain, autonomic nervous system responses, gut motility, peripheral nerve function, ventilation, and cardiac dysfunctions. The imbalance in the KY/KA ratio may increase pain, intestinal hypermotility, and peripheral neuropathy through effects of KY and KA acid, both centrally
and peripherally, at the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR), G-proteincoupled receptor-35 (GPR35), and aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHr). These alterations in the TRYCAT pathway in somatization and depression may interface with the role of the mu-opioid, serotonin, and oxytocin systems in the regulation of stress reactions and early attachment.
It is hypothesized that irregular parenting and insecure attachment paralleled by chronic stress play a key role in the expression of variations in the TRYCAT pathway—both centrally and peripherally—driving the etiology of somatization through interactions with the mu-opioid receptors. Therefore, the TRYCAT pathway,
NMDARs, GPR35, and AHrs may be new drug targets in somatization and depression with somatizing. We lastly review new pathophysiologically driven drug candidates for somatization, including St. John's wort, resveratrol, melatonin, agomelatine, Garcinia
mangostana (g-mangostin), N-acetyl cysteine, and pamoic acid.

Conversion, dissociation and somatization are historically related in the long-established hysteria, but thirty years ago they were separated by the main international classifications of mental disease. Our aim was to compare these pathologies and investigate whether symptoms of these pathologies overlap through the phenomenon of dissociation. Pathological dissociation has been extensively studied in many countries; however, little is known about it in Portugal.
We measured dissociation through Portuguese versions of the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES) and Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire (SDQ-20); the clinical evaluation and sub-scales of the BSI indicated mental health.
Pathological dissociation was significantly more frequent in dissociative and conversion disorder than in somatization disorder and controls. There were no significant differences
between dissociative and conversion patients. Conversion disorder is closely related to dissociative disorders. These results support the ICD-10 categorization of conversion disorder among dissociative disorders and the hypothesis of analogous
psychopathological processes in conversion and dissociative disorders versus somatization disorder.

click on the Somatosphere.net link above for a copy of the paper
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This article presents a summary and discussion of key findings from ten months of experimental cyberethnography among tulpamancers . Tulpas, a term reportedly borrowed from Tibetan Buddhism, are imaginary companions who are said to have achieved full sentience after being conjured through ‘thought-form’ meditative practice. Human ‘hosts’, or tulpamancers, mediate their practice through open-ended how-to guides and discussion forums on the Internet and experience their Tulpas as semi-permanent auditory and somatic hallucinations.
Studying Tulpas and their hosts is fascinating on many counts, not least because it provides an opportunity to observe an emerging culture and the mediation of new kinds of persons – in this case, that of multiple humanoid and non-human persons ‘hosted’ in single bodies and a large-scale sociocultural matrix of ‘healing’ generated without physical interaction between members. As an anthropologist who underwent retraining in cognitive science, however, I am less concerned with the seemingly ‘strange’ and ‘exotic’ aspects of Tulpamancy and am most interested in what the practice can reveal about fundamentally human mechanisms and processes. Thus, I seek to investigate (but in no pre-determined order) how neurocognitive, attentional, and narrative processes invariably shape all forms of sociality and experiences of personhood on the one hand, but also how social, political, and technological processes invariably shape mechanisms of attention, cognition, and perception. I gravitate toward sociocognitive, enactive models of hypnosis as ways of mediating sociality and personhood.

In the face with the studies about hysteria and somatization disorder, i allow myself to relate these concepts and to approximate theoreticians separated by the time and their research approaches. This article intend to encourage the reflection about psychosomatic pathologies and to question the constant updates of the diagnostic manuals.

Medically unexplained symptoms place patients in a distinctive social predicament. Their conditions are ambiguous and so their expectations for treatment and recovery are uncertain. Their symptoms may be attributed by clinicians to psychological traits or conflicts, and the reality and legitimacy of their suffering and disability may be challenged. To maintain medical attention and support, and legitimate their distress, patients must be skilled in rhetoric. Rhetorical practices shape the presentation of somatic symptoms in primary care, specialty medicine, and psychiatry. Beyond this clinical context, somatic symptoms may have rhetorical value as: (1) an index of disease or disorder; (2) an indication of psychopathology; (3) a symbolic expression of intrapsychic or interpersonal conflict; (4) a culturally coded "idiom of distress"; (5) a metaphor for experience; (6) a strategy for expressing social discontent; and (7) a mechanism through which people attempt to reposition themselves in their local worlds. The clinical treatment of somatoform disorders, as well as the responses of the disability and compensation systems, can be analyzed in terms of their influence on these different levels of meaning. Analysis of the rhetorical power of institutional practices to transform the meaning of somatic distress can guide the development of new clinical and social strategies to help individuals with medically unexplained somatic distress.

RESUMEN-SELECCIÓN DE LA TESIS DOCTORAL.
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«Tecnopatías post-alfabéticas: lectoescritura performativa y somatización de internet» es un documento de unos 86MB y unas 400 págs que aborda las problemáticas del lenguaje en internet y de cómo éstas influyen en los cuerpos. Desde el primer mensaje entrecortado emitido en ARPANET en 1969 hasta la hiperestimulación actual de las TIC, internet de-codifica la materia alfabética y genera un eje tensional entre sus velocidades de distribución suprahumanas y la asimilación por parte de lxs usuarixs.

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SUMMARY AND SELECTION OF THE DOCTORAL THESIS.
FREE DOWNLOAD LINK TO THE FULL DOCUMENT: https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/64934/
"Post-Alphabetic Technopathologies: Performative literacy and somatization of the internet" is a document of about 86MB and 400 pages which addresses the problems of language on the internet and how these influence bodies. From the first choppy message broadcast on the ARPANET in 1969 to the current hyperstimulation of ICT, the internet de-codes alphabetical matter and generates a tension axis between its supra-human distribution speeds and the assimilation by users.

Somatization has been defined as the tendency to experience or express psychological states as somatic symptoms (Lipowski, 1968) or the use of somatic symptoms for psychological purposes (Ford, 1983). People who might be expected to complain of depression, anxiety or marital conflict are found instead to suffer from headaches, fatigue, indigestion and a myriad of other physical symptoms. The assumption that physical symptoms can be caused by social difficulties and amplified by attention is basic to psychological medicine. What somatization adds to this picture is a focus on the discrepancy between patients' experiences of their problems as somatic, and the belief of health-care providers that the problem is psychological or social in nature.
This chapter will address current concepts of somatization and the pragmatics of deciding that an individual is somatizing. Somatization is neither a discrete clinical entity nor the result of a single pathological process. Consideration of clinical examples suggests that somatization cuts' across diagnostic categories and is best considered the result of processes that shape the experience and expression of every illness episode. A model that incorporates some of the possible mechanisms for somatization will be outlined. This chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the role of social processes and bodily experience in the construction of the sense of self in health and illness.

Increased depression, somatization, gut inflammation and wider peripheral inflammation are all associated with the early stages of Parkinson's disease (PD). Classically such concurrent conditions have been viewed as "comorbidities", driven by high levels of stress in a still poorly understood and treated disorder. Here we review the data on how oxidative and nitrosative stress in association with immuno-inflammatory responses, drives alteration in tryptophan catabolites, including kynurenine, kynurenic acid and quinolinic acid that drive not only the 'comorbidities" of PD but also important processes in the etiology and course of PD per se. The induction of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, leading to the driving of tryptophan into neuroregulatory tryptophan catabolite products and away from serotonin and melatonin production, has significant implications for understanding the role of nicotine, melatonin, and caffeine in regulating PD susceptibility. Tryptophan catabolite pathway activation will also regulate blood-brain barrier permeability, glia and mast cell reactivity as well as wider innate and adaptive immune cell responses, all relevant to the course of PD. As such, the "comorbidities" of PD such as depression, somatization and peripheral inflammatory disorders can all be conceptualized as being an intricate part of the biological underpinnings of both the etiology and course of PD. As a consequence, the data reviewed here has treatment implications; relevant to both the course of PD and in the management of L-DOPA induced dyskinesias.

In South Africa and beyond, a dominant discourse defines fatherhood through material provision. Little is known about how this is interlinked with men's subjectivities and their cultural worlds. This paper offers a comparative ethnographic account of how young unemployed fathers felt when they were unable to provide. It argues that Xhosa-, Afrikaans-, and English-speaking men in Cape Town shared the pain of fatherhood under conditions of economic hardship and tended to express it outwardly through anger, which in part concealed their despair. Unique biographies and cultural forms corresponded with different perceptions, interpretations, and labeling of their experience as 'witchcraft', impending 'heart attack', or 'depression', and made them embody it in different ways. While these idioms established meaningful ethnopsychiatric associations, they also created blank spots. I chose the term provider syndrome to come closer to indignant father's experience. It has the potential to link historical inequalities and dominant discourses of masculinity to physical, emotional, and social pain across epistemic divides. The paper is based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2007-2010 in three Cape Townian neighborhoods as part of a larger project concerned with subjective vulnerabilities, violence, and affect among the post-apartheid generation of men.

Objective: This study sought to determine the trauma-related psychiatric comorbidity of somatization disorder among women who applied to an outpatient psychiatric unit of a general hospital in eastern Turkey. Methods: Forty women with somatization disorder and 40 non-clinical controls recruited from the same geographic region participated in the study. Somatization disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) sections of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (including its criterion A traumatic events checklist), Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule, Dissociative Experiences Scale (Taxon), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, and Childhood Abuse and Neglect Questionnaire were administered to all participants. Results: A significant proportion of the women with somatization disorder had the concurrent diagnoses of major depression, PTSD, dissociative disorder, and borderline personality disorder. Women with somatization disorder reported traumatic experiences of childhood and/or adulthood more frequently than the comparison group. A significant proportion of these patients reported possession and/or paranormal experiences. Binary logistic regression analysis demonstrated that current major depression, being married, total number of traumatic events in adulthood, and reports of possession and/or paranormal experiences were independent risk factors for somatization disorder diagnosis. Conclusions: Among women with endemically high exposition to traumatic stress, multiple somatic complaints were in a significant relationship with major depressive disorder and lifelong cumulative traumatization. While accompanying experiences of possession and paranormal phenomena may lead to seeking help by paramedical healers, the challenge of differential diagnosis may also limit effective service to this group of somatizing women with traumatic antecedents and related psychiatric comorbidities.

This article describes an emergent reconfiguration of the problem of somatization in contemporary research and practice around 'medically unexplained symptoms' among UK-based primary care researchers with a special interest in these conditions. Based on an analysis of clinical research literature and on participant observation in the early stages of a clinical research project, the article explores recent accounts of the role of medicine and doctors in the co-production of somatization, and contemporary efforts to address this iatrogenic dimension by developing and testing clinically effective explanations. In this reconfigured discursive space, the problem of explanation is recast not in terms of the need for a representational, objective truth on the basis of which treatment of one kind or another should follow, but rather in terms of a pragmatic wager whose truth lies in the quality of its clinical effects. In this sense, these explanatory strategies can be characterized as a form of 'speculative pragmatism' and may be said to instantiate a form of 'creative accountability'. The concluding section of the article contrasts this form of pragmatism with the 'cash-value' pragmatism implicit in explanatory strategies evident among participants of self-help groups for contested illnesses, particularly in the US. This contrast highlights the constraints that different healthcare systems-or policy environments, broadly conceived-impose on citizens' ability to re-imagine themselves in ways that might facilitate their potential for growth, transformation and self-care.

Previous research has documented that Asians tend to somatize negative experiences to a greater degree than Westerners. It is posited that somatization may be a more functional communication strategy in Korean than American context. We examined the effects of somatization in communications of distress among participants from the US and Korea. We predicted that the communicative benefits of somatic words used in distress narratives would depend on the cultural contexts. In Study 1, we found that Korean participants used more somatic words to communicate distress than US participants. Among Korean participants, but not US participants, use of somatic words predicted perceived effectiveness of the communication and expectations of positive reactions (e.g., empathy) from others. In Study 2, we found that when presented with distress narratives of others, Koreans (but not Americans) showed more sympathy in response to narratives using somatic words than narratives using emotional words. These findings suggest that cultural differences in use of somatization may reflect differential effectiveness of somatization in communicating distress across cultural contexts.

To investigate the frequency of physio-somatic symptoms (PS) symptoms in schizophrenia and their relation to positive, negative and affective symptoms; neurocognitive deficits and impairments in the tryptophan catabolite (TRYCAT) pathway. Eighty four patients with schizophrenia and 40 healthy controls were assessed using the 12 item Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Rating scale (FF) and scales for negative and positive symptoms, depression and anxiety. Cognitive functioning was tested using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). Other assessments included: immunoglobulin (Ig)A and IgM responses to tryptophan catab-olites (TRYCATs), namely quinolinic (QA), 3-OH-kynurenine (3HK), picolinic (PA), xanthurenic (XA) and kynurenic acid (KA) and anthranilic acid (AA). More than 50% of the patients studied had elevated levels of physio-somatic (PS) symptoms, significantly co-occurring with depression and anxiety, but not with negative or positive symptoms. PS symptoms were significantly associated with IgA/IgM responses to TRYCATs, including increased IgA responses to 3 HK, PA and XA, and lowered IgA to QA and AA. Fatigue, muscle pain and tension, autonomic and cognitive symptoms and a flu-like malaise were strongly associated with cognitive impairments in spatial planning and working memory, paired associative learning, visual sustained attention and attention set shifting. PS symptoms in schizophrenia aggregate with depression and anxiety symptoms and may be driven by TRYCAT patterning of IgA/IgM-responses, with IgA indicating mucosal-mediated changes and IgM indicating regulatory functions. As such, the patterning of IgA/IgM responses to TRYCATs may indicate differential TRYCATs regulation of neuronal and glia activity that act to regulate PS signalling in schizophrenia.

Die wichtigste Informationsquelle für die Erklärung, Beschreibung und Vorhersage des Erlebens und Verhaltens von Menschen und dessen Auswirkung auf gesellschaftliche Prozesse und Phänomene sind psychologische Merkmale und Einstellungen. In Forschung und Praxis ist seit einigen Jahren ein zunehmendes Interesse an der Erfassung solcher Merkmale zu beobachten: Immer häufi ger werden diese in bevölkerungsrepräsentativen Erhebungen, wie dem Sozio-ökonomischen Panel (SOEP) des DIW oder den PISA-Studien der OECD, sowie in anderen Forschungs-und Anwendungskontexten eingesetzt. Dabei ist aufgrund zeitlicher oder fi nanzieller Restriktionen das Interesse an kurzen ökonomischen Erhebungsinstrumenten besonders hoch. Dieses Buch liefert eine umfassende Sammlung standardisierter und zeitsparender Erhebungsinstrumente zur Messung psychologischer Merkmale aus unterschiedlichen Bereichen, z.B.: ■ Persönlichkeitseigenschaften nach dem Fünf-Faktoren-Modell oder andere Persönlichkeitsmerkmale wie Vertrauen, Optimismus, Risikobereitschaft; ■ verhaltensrelevante Einstellungen wie Gewaltbereitschaft, Ausländerfeindlichkeit und Chauvinismus; ■ Leistungskonstrukte wie fi gurale und kristalline Intelligenz; ■ tätigkeitsrelevante Konstrukte wie Führungsverhalten und Mobbing sowie ■ Merkmale, die ein klinisch-relevantes Erleben und Verhalten abbilden, wie Depressivität, Ängste, gesundheitsbezogene Lebensqualität und Einsamkeitserfahrungen. Jede Kurzskala wird in einer übersichtlichen Beschreibung vorgestellt, die alle wichtigen Informationen enthält, sodass es dem Leser ermöglicht wird, innerhalb kürzester Zeit eine für seinen Forschungs-oder Anwendungszweck passende Auswahl zu treffen. C. J. Kemper | E. Brähler | M. Zenger Psychologische und sozial wissenschaftliche Kurzskalen -Kemper | Brähler | Zenger ■ umfangreiche Sammlung von standardisierten Kurzskalen zur Erfassung von psychologischen Merkmalen aus den Bereichen Persönlichkeit, Leistung, Einstellungen, Psychopathologie und Ressourcen ■ übersichtliche Beiträge mit Informationen zu Entwicklung, Aufbau, Anwendung, psychometrischer Güte und Verfügbarkeit der Kurzskalen ■ Mit diesem Handbuch fi nden Sie innerhalb weniger Minuten ein für Ihre Forschungs-oder Anwendungszwecke passendes kurzes und standardisiertes Erhebungsinstrument! 9 7 8 3 9 5 4 6 6 0 5 6 8

There is some evidence that lowered tryptophan and an activated tryptophan catabolite (TRYCAT) pathway play a role in depression, somatoform disorder, and postpartum blues. The aim of this study is to delineate the associations between the TRYCAT pathway and premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and perinatal depressive and physio-somatic symptoms. We examine the associations between end of term serum IgM and IgA responses to tryptophan and 9 TRYCATs in relation to zinc, C-reactive protein (CRP), and haptoglobin and prenatal physio-somatic (previously known as psychosomatic) symptoms (fatigue, back pain, muscle pain, dyspepsia, obstipation) and prenatal and postnatal depression and anxiety symptoms as measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD), and Spielberger's State Anxiety Inventory (STAI). We included pregnant females with (n = 24) and without depression (n = 25) and 24 non-pregnant females. There were no significant associations between the IgA/IgM responses to tryptophan and TRYCATs and prenatal and postnatal depression/anxiety symptoms, except for lowered IgA responses to anthranilic acid in prenatal depression. A large part of the variance in IgA responses to most TRYCATs was explained by PMS and haptoglobin (positively) and CRP (inversely) levels. The IgA responses to TRYCATs were significantly increased in PMS, in particular picolinic, anthranilic, xanthurenic and kynurenic acid, and 3OH-kynurenine. Variance (62.5%) in physio-somatic symptoms at the end of term was explained by PMS, previous depressions, zinc (inversely), CRP and haptoglobin (both positively), and the IgM responses to quinolinic acid (positively), anthranilic acid, and tryptophan (both negatively). The results suggest that mucosa-derived TRYCAT pathway activation is significantly associated with PMS, but not with perinatal depression/anxiety symptoms. Physio-somatic symptoms in pregnancy have an immune-inflammatory pathophysiology. Induction of the TRYCAT pathway appears to be more related to physio-somatic than to depression symptoms.

Background
Although children across the world experience Developmental Disabilities, most research on DD has been conducted using Western cultural perspectives and has primarily focused on mothers, leaving significant gaps in the literature. This study intends to fill some of these gaps by exploring and gaining an understanding of the experiences of fathers raising children with DD. Thus, the aim of this study was: to examine whether stigma, somatization, and parental self-efficacy were associated with stress among Bedouin fathers of adolescents with DD. Besides, the relationship between somatization and stress was examined in this study, as it is mediated by the sense of stigma, as well as the intensity of the mediation of the knowledge of shame, between paternal self-efficacy and stress.

Methodology
Notably, ninety Bedouin fathers of adolescents with DD completed five questionnaires. These questionnaires included demographic, stigma, parental self-efficacy, and stress and somatization questionnaires.

Results
Significantly, the study findings indicate significant negative relationships between general stress and parental self-efficacy, parental and economic stress and parental self-efficacy, and sense of stigma and parental self-efficacy. Also, the findings indicate significant positive relationships between stigma and anxiety, fear and somatization, and stigma and somatization.

Conclusions
Arguably, concerning the findings of the study, intervention programs that are culturally tailored and that concern cognitive-behavioral foundations are recommended to help fathers cope with their sense of stigma. Further, the intervention programs help to deal with stress and somatization and to increase their understanding of parental self-efficacy in raising their child. Therefore, these cultural intervention programs should take into account the individual and his extended family, and place of the family in his life, considering the cultural values and the honor of the family. Further, the programs should take into account the centrality of religion and an awareness of the impact of the social hierarchy and the status of the fathers in the community and on the child with disabilities. In essence, these areas are focal points of power that can assist in providing solutions for the intervention program. Also, it is essential to refer to the living and economic conditions of this community.

The aim of this study was to delineate the associations between the tryptophan catabolite (TRYCAT) pathway and affective symptoms in schizophrenia. Towards this end we measured immunoglobulin (Ig)A and IgM responses to relatively noxious TRYCATs, namely quinolinic (QA), xanthurenic (XA), picolinic (PA) acid and 3-OH-kynurenine (3HK), and generally protective TRYCATs, namely anthranilic (AA) and kynurenic (KA) acid in 80 patients with schizophrenia and 40 healthy controls. The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HDRS) and anxiety (HAMA), Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) as well as the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale of Schizophrenia (PANSS) were measured. Depression, anxiety and hypomanic as well as negative and positive symptoms were associated with increased IgA responses to PA. Increased IgA responses to XA were associated with anxiety, hypomanic and negative symptoms. Moreover, depressive, anxiety, hypomanic and negative symptoms were characterized by increased IgA responses to the noxious (XA+3HK+QA+PA)/protective (AA+KA) TRYCAT ratio. All symptom dimensions were associated with increased IgM responses to QA, while depressive, anxiety, positive and negative symptoms were accompanied by lowered IgM responses to 3HK. Hypomanic symptoms were additionally accompanied by lowered IgM responses to AA, and negative symptoms by increased IgM responses to KA. In conclusion, both shared and distinct alterations in the activity of the TRYCAT pathway, as well as its regulatory factors and consequences, may underpin affective and classical psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia. Increased mucosa-generated production of noxious TRYCATs, especially PA, and specific changes in IgM-mediated regulatory activities may be associated with the different symptom dimensions of schizophrenia.

Die wichtigste Informationsquelle für die Erklärung, Beschreibung und Vorhersage des Erlebens und Verhaltens von Menschen und dessen Auswirkung auf gesellschaftliche Prozesse und Phänomene sind psychologische Merkmale und Einstellungen. In Forschung und Praxis ist seit einigen Jahren ein zunehmendes Interesse an der Erfassung solcher Merkmale zu beobachten: Immer häufi ger werden diese in bevölkerungsrepräsentativen Erhebungen, wie dem Sozio-ökonomischen Panel (SOEP) des DIW oder den PISA-Studien der OECD, sowie in anderen Forschungs-und Anwendungskontexten eingesetzt. Dabei ist aufgrund zeitlicher oder fi nanzieller Restriktionen das Interesse an kurzen ökonomischen Erhebungsinstrumenten besonders hoch. Dieses Buch liefert eine umfassende Sammlung standardisierter und zeitsparender Erhebungsinstrumente zur Messung psychologischer Merkmale aus unterschiedlichen Bereichen, z.B.: ■ Persönlichkeitseigenschaften nach dem Fünf-Faktoren-Modell oder andere Persönlichkeitsmerkmale wie Vertrauen, Optimismus, Risikobereitschaft; ■ verhaltensrelevante Einstellungen wie Gewaltbereitschaft, Ausländerfeindlichkeit und Chauvinismus; ■ Leistungskonstrukte wie fi gurale und kristalline Intelligenz; ■ tätigkeitsrelevante Konstrukte wie Führungsverhalten und Mobbing sowie ■ Merkmale, die ein klinisch-relevantes Erleben und Verhalten abbilden, wie Depressivität, Ängste, gesundheitsbezogene Lebensqualität und Einsamkeitserfahrungen. Jede Kurzskala wird in einer übersichtlichen Beschreibung vorgestellt, die alle wichtigen Informationen enthält, sodass es dem Leser ermöglicht wird, innerhalb kürzester Zeit eine für seinen Forschungs-oder Anwendungszweck passende Auswahl zu treffen.

OBJECTIVE:
Somatization of emotions accounts for excess emergency department (ED) visits in the form of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP) has been used to diagnose and manage somatization. We examined the effectiveness of this procedure for ED patients with MUS.
METHODS:
We implemented a service that included staff education, timely access to consultation and gathering of outcome data.
RESULTS:
Patients were assessed and treated shortly after referral. There was a mean reduction of 3.2 (69.0%) ED visits per patient (standard deviation [SD] 6.4) the year afterward (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.3-5.0, p< 0.001). In comparison revisit rates during the same time interval for 3 available ED populations (i.e., those matched by visit rates, those with matching complaints and all patients referred to the service but never seen) showed either smaller reductions or higher ED use (ranging from a 15% reduction to a 43% increase). Treatments averaged 3.8 sessions per patient (SD 5.3). Self reported symptoms improved significantly with the Brief Symptom Inventory global rating, which changed from a mean of 1.21 (SD 0.58) before assessment to 0.86 (SD 0.63) ( p< 0.01) at the end of contact with the service. The service appeared acceptable to both emergency physicians and patients.
CONCLUSION:
This emotion-focused assessment and treatment method appeared to be feasible and may be effective in reducing both symptoms and repeat ED use.

OBJECTIVE: medically unexplained symptoms are common and associated with mental illness in various contexts. Previous studies show that Latin American populations are prone to somatization. Given the reformulation of the International Classification of Diseases towards its 11th edition the peculiarities of the population from this region of the world shall be taken into consideration. The objective of this study is to provide information on somatization in Latin American populations to help the decision making about medically unexplained symptoms diagnostic categories in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases.
METHOD: Extensive review of the academic production from 1995 to 2011 on somatization in populations of Latin American origin.
RESULTS: The analysis of 106 studies included in this review was divided into 15 categories: systematic reviews, conceptual reviews, prevalence, primary care, depression and anxiety, risk factors, violence, organic conditions, relationship with health care, ethnicity, culture-bound syndromes, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, body dysmorphic disorder, and conversion and dissociation.
CONCLUSION: The Latin American studies confirm the difficulty in defining medically unexplained symptoms categories. The supposed "somatizing trace" of Latin cultures may be linked more to cultural and linguistic expression than to an ethnic nature, and these peculiarities must be on the agenda for the new classification of these phenomena in the Classification of Diseases-11th edition.

Version in Portuguese also available at http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-44462011000500006&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=pt

The global dissemination of COVID-19 creates confusion and ambiguity in nearly every aspect of life, including fear of contagion, heightened awareness of the mortality of self and family members, lack of power, and distrust of experts and decision-makers. In this stressful situation, the question arises as to what mechanisms distinguish between adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation. The theory of Motivated Cue-Integration (MCI) is a novel theory of self-regulation that provides a new perspective on the effect of COVID-19 on self-regulation deficiency as an example of psychological distress. Inspired by predictive coding, social cognition, embodied cognition, and experiential approach, MCI suggests that self-regulation is based on interaction between (1) high-level values and goals, (2) low-level interoceptive and exteroceptive signals, and (3) trust in epistemic authority or a significant other. Motivated Cue-Integration posits that individuals create meaning by making moment-to-moment predictions that affect their interpretation of the experience of ambiguity influenced by their relationship with epistemic authority. According to MCI, deficiency in self-regulation during COVID-19 could result either from over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity to low-level interoceptive and exteroceptive cues; rigidity or ambiguity of high-level goals, poor integration between the two levels of processing as well as distrust in epistemic authority. According to MCI, variations of these deficiencies may occur in various clinical phenomena such as alexithymia and somatization, as well as in social phenomena such as goal radicalization. Based on this reasoning, MCI claims that the mentalization of the relationship between interoceptive cues, exteroceptive cues, goals, and psychological needs of the person, as well as the improvement of confidence in epistemic authority, can promote adaptive self-regulation. Psychological intervention can foster trust in epistemic authority, increase the mentalization of interoceptive and exteroceptive cues, and their association with adaptive goals. As such, the integration of these elements in a way that facilitates incentives pathways and insight fosters a more integrated subjective experience, higher clarity of emotion, and positive internal dialogue which promotes action tendency.

The aim of this study was to explore the coping resources of hope and sense of coherence, which are rooted in positive-psychology theory, as potential resilience factors that might reduce the emotional distress experienced by adults from three cultural groups in Israel during the chronic-stress situation of a pandemic. The three cultural groups examined were secular Jews, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arabs. We compared these cultural groups during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, just before the Jewish New Year (mid-September 2020) as a second lockdown was announced. Data were gathered from 248 secular Jews, 243 Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and 203 Arabs, who were 18-70 years old (M = 37.14, SD = 12.62). The participants filled out self-reported questionnaires including the Brief Symptom Inventory as a measure of emotional/psychological distress (i.e., somatization, depression, and anxiety) and questionnaires about sense of coherence and different types of hope (i.e., intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal) as measures of coping resources and resiliency. Differences were found between the three groups in terms of several variables. The Arab participants reported the highest levels of emotional distress and the lowest levels of interpersonal and transpersonal hope; whereas the Ultra-Orthodox participants revealed the highest levels of sense of coherence and other resilience factors. A structural equation model revealed that, in addition to the sociodemographic factors, only sense of coherence and intrapersonal hope played significant roles in explaining emotional distress, explaining 60% of the reported distress among secular Jews, 41% among Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and 48% among Arabs. We discuss our findings in light of the salutogenic and hope theories. We will also discuss their relevancy to meaning-seeking and self-transcendence theory in the three cultural groups.

Objective: This study tested the hypothesis that large-scale provision of individual medical examination will reduce persistent anxiety about health and subjective health complaints after involvement in an aviation disaster with alleged exposure to hazardous chemicals. Method: Three measurements were performed: during the medical examination, 6 weeks later during consultation with the physician and 12 weeks after the first examination. Rescue workers (n=1736) and residents (n=339) involved in the disaster participated. Standardized questionnaires on health complaints and concerns were administered. Results: Both groups reported increased health anxiety and somatic sensitivity after 12 weeks. Residents reported more posttraumatic stress symptoms, whereas rescue workers seemed to have gained a better quality of life and were somewhat reassured. Participants who attended the consultation with the physician showed increased reassurance scores after 6 weeks, but their worries had increased again on follow-up. However, nonattendees reported more health anxiety on follow-up. More participants judged participation to have had a positive impact, instead of a negative impact, on their health. Conclusion: Our study does not indicate that a large-scale medical examination offered after involvement in a disaster has long-lasting reassuring effects and suggests that such examination may have counterproductive effects by sensitizing participants to health complaints.

In this chapter, I want to examine the elements of illness experience as they are enacted in a clinical encounter to show how different narrative possibilities are tendered but not fully carried out because of cross-purposes between clinician and patient. What exists in place of an overarching integrative narrative, or even two side-by-side texts, is an inter-cutting, heteroglossia and, ultimately, mutual subversion of accounts. This subversion leads to the failure to construct a shared narrative on which joint action can proceed. In offering this example, I hope to show that by focusing on narratives in their discursive context, with attention to rhetorical aims, we can identify those situations of flawed reality construction  that are among the most significant examples of clinical impasses. These situations of conflict and contestation can reveal structural problems and ideological conflicts in medical care; at the same time, they provide important opportunities for the creation of new meaning.

In this paper, we employed data from the 2011 Miami-Dade Health Survey (n = 444) to formally test whether the association between religious struggles and psychological distress is mediated by psychosocial resources. We found that religious struggles were associated with lower levels of social support, self-esteem, the sense of control, and self-control. We also observed that religious struggles were associated with higher levels of non-specific emotional distress, depression, and anxiety, but not somatization. Our mediation analyses revealed significant indirect effects of religious struggles on emotional distress (not somatization) through social support, selfesteem, and the sense of control, but not self-control.

The aim of this study was to explore the coping resources of hope and sense of coherence, which are rooted in positive-psychology theory, as potential resilience factors that might reduce the emotional distress experienced by adults from three cultural groups in Israel during the chronic-stress situation of a pandemic. The three cultural groups examined were secular Jews, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arabs. We compared these cultural groups during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, just before the Jewish New Year (mid-September 2020) as a second lockdown was announced. Data were gathered from 248 secular Jews, 243 Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and 203 Arabs, who were 18–70 years old (M = 37.14, SD = 12.62). The participants filled out self-reported questionnaires including the Brief Symptom Inventory as a measure of emotional/psychological distress (i.e., somatization, depression, and anxiety) and questionnaires about sense of coherence and different types of hope (i.e., intrapersonal, in...

In this chapter, we review what is known about the clinical presentations, prevalence, and comorbidity of hypochondriasis in primary care. Next, we consider the course of hypochondriasis, which may depend crucially on interactions with primary care clinicians. We then review studies on primary care populations that elucidate some of the individual and social processes that contribute to illness worry, disease conviction and the failure to respond to medical reassurance. Finally, we briefly consider treatment strategies appropriate for the primary care setting.

"OBJECTIVE: Conversion, dissociation and somatization are historically related in the long established concept of hysteria. Somewhere along the way they were separated due to the Cartesian dualistic view. The aim of the present study was to compare these pathologies and investigate whether symptoms of these pathologies overlap in their clinical appearance in a Portuguese sample.

METHOD: Twenty-six patients with conversion disorder, 38 with dissociative disorders, 40 with somatization disorder, and a comparison group of 46 patients having other psychiatric disorders answered questions about dissociation (Dissociative Experiences Scale), somatoform dissociation (Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire), and psychopathological symptoms (Brief Symptom Inventory).

RESULTS: Dissociative and somatoform symptoms were significantly more frequent in dissociative and conversion disorder than in somatization disorder and controls. There were no significant differences between dissociative and conversion patients.

CONCLUSIONS: Conversion disorder is closely related to dissociative disorders. These results support the ICD-10 categorization of conversion disorder among dissociative disorders and the hypothesis of analogous psychopathological processes in conversion and dissociative disorders versus somatization disorder."

Die wichtigste Informationsquelle für die Erklärung, Beschreibung und Vorhersage des Erlebens und Verhaltens von Menschen und dessen Auswirkung auf gesellschaftliche Prozesse und Phänomene sind psychologische Merkmale und Einstellungen. In Forschung und Praxis ist seit einigen Jahren ein zunehmendes Interesse an der Erfassung solcher Merkmale zu beobachten: Immer häufi ger werden diese in bevölkerungsrepräsentativen Erhebungen, wie dem Sozio-ökonomischen Panel (SOEP) des DIW oder den PISA-Studien der OECD, sowie in anderen Forschungs-und Anwendungskontexten eingesetzt. Dabei ist aufgrund zeitlicher oder fi nanzieller Restriktionen das Interesse an kurzen ökonomischen Erhebungsinstrumenten besonders hoch. Dieses Buch liefert eine umfassende Sammlung standardisierter und zeitsparender Erhebungsinstrumente zur Messung psychologischer Merkmale aus unterschiedlichen Bereichen, z.B.: ■ Persönlichkeitseigenschaften nach dem Fünf-Faktoren-Modell oder andere Persönlichkeitsmerkmale wie Vertrauen, Optimismus, Risikobereitschaft; ■ verhaltensrelevante Einstellungen wie Gewaltbereitschaft, Ausländerfeindlichkeit und Chauvinismus; ■ Leistungskonstrukte wie fi gurale und kristalline Intelligenz; ■ tätigkeitsrelevante Konstrukte wie Führungsverhalten und Mobbing sowie ■ Merkmale, die ein klinisch-relevantes Erleben und Verhalten abbilden, wie Depressivität, Ängste, gesundheitsbezogene Lebensqualität und Einsamkeitserfahrungen. Jede Kurzskala wird in einer übersichtlichen Beschreibung vorgestellt, die alle wichtigen Informationen enthält, sodass es dem Leser ermöglicht wird, innerhalb kürzester Zeit eine für seinen Forschungs-oder Anwendungszweck passende Auswahl zu treffen.

Latent variable models of functional somatic symptoms were estimated for a sample of 686 family medicine patients. Symptom items from the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule were selected to approximate diagnoses of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that hypothesized latent variables of somatic depression, somatic anxiety, FM-like, CF-like, and IB-like syndromes fit the observed covariations better than models hypothesizing fewer latent variables. Results offer tentative confirmation of functional somatic syndromes as discrete entities and suggest that relaxing the diagnostic criteria for somatization may identify individuals with distress limited to a single functional system.

Virtual environments (VE) are virtual social spaces that provide powerful means for creating, activating and modifying virtual bodies—Avatars—without dependencies on biological factors,formal rules and explicit conventions. VE offer unlimited possibilities to create the desired body and express personal bodily preference in virtual sport spaces without restrictions regarding established roles and behavioural expectations. Such a VE is Second Life (SL) in which the user is represented by an Avatar. This study focuses on a virtual sport space: the Fitness Club of Second Life. It examines the rules and regulations of this virtual space along with the role of 26 Avatars as bodily representations, including their bodily behaviours-exercises-practices in the SL Fitness Club. The data for this study was selected through systematic observation of 26 Avatars (apx. 180 hours) during March, April and May 2015, followed by detailed descriptions of single phenomena. Regarding the structure of sp...

Virtual environments (VE) are virtual social spaces that provide powerful means for creating, activating and modifying virtual bodies-Avatars-without dependencies on biological factors,formal rules and explicit conventions. VE offer unlimited possibilities to create the desired body and express personal bodily preference in virtual sport spaces without restrictions regarding established roles and behavioural expectations. Such a VE is Second Life (SL) in which the user is represented by an Avatar. This study focuses on a virtual sport space: the Fitness Club of Second Life. It examines the rules and regulations of this virtual space along with the role of 26 Avatars as bodily representations, including their bodily behaviours-exercises-practices in the SL Fitness Club. The data for this study was selected through systematic observation of 26 Avatars (apx. 180 hours) during March, April and May 2015, followed by detailed descriptions of single phenomena. Regarding the structure of space and bodily behavior, the results indicate less differences between sport virtual spaces and sport physical spaces, the opposite of what we had originally assumed. According to the results, the Avatar Fitness Club appears to be a highly individualistic and narcissistic environment. Moreover, every user can perform his/her bodily activities in a rather liberating way, occasionally surpassing biological limitations. When the Avatars exercise they imitate the movements of the physical sport world, namely they mimic the physical body. Further studies are needed to show the influence of an Avatar's performance-bodily exercises on the real user, the individual behind the computer screen.

UN Security Council Resolution 2396 (2017) on Foreign Terrorist Fighters (Returnees and Relocators) urges nations to improve information and evidence sharing while developing tailored prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration strategies; including programs addressing radicalization in children associated with “Foreign Terrorist Fighters.” The need for such programs has gained urgency since the collapse of Islamic State (IS)/Daesh, with the detainment of IS family members in overcrowded camps in Syria, and their uncertain fate following the Turkish military Operation PEACE SPRING, in October 2019. Approximately 2 million children underwent Daesh indoctrination June 2014 – 2019, and this process continues to be led by women in many detention camps. The heightened sense of vulnerability to terrorist attacks in Western nations has led many nations to refuse the return of children to their home country, or initial entry - fearing that their past radicalization will lead to future terrorism. Such decisions contravene, among other instruments, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Convention on Refugees (1951), Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC 1989), and the Optional Protocol to the CRC on Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC, 2000). This paper examines emotional traumas experienced by Daesh “camp followers,” particularly the children, and the psychological rehabilitation and social reintegration challenges they face as they grow to adulthood. This paper argues that the psychosocial support needed for rehabilitation and reintegration is better found in Western societies than in refugee camps, which are often incubators for future terrorists.

Virtual environments (VE) are virtual social spaces that provide powerful means for creating, activating and modifying virtual bodies—Avatars—without dependencies on biological factors,formal rules and explicit conventions. VE offer unlimited possibilities to create the desired body and express personal bodily preference in virtual sport spaces without restrictions regarding established roles and behavioural expectations. Such a VE is Second Life (SL) in which the user is represented by an Avatar. This study focuses on a virtual sport space: the Fitness Club of Second Life. It examines the rules and regulations of this virtual space along with the role of 26 Avatars as bodily representations, including their bodily behaviours-exercises-practices in the SL Fitness Club. The data for this study was selected through systematic observation of 26 Avatars (apx. 180 hours) during March, April and May 2015, followed by detailed descriptions of single phenomena. Regarding the structure of space and bodily behavior, the results indicate less differences between sport virtual spaces and sport physical spaces, the opposite of what we had originally assumed. According to the results, the Avatar Fitness Club appears to be a highly individualistic and narcissistic environment. Moreover, every user can perform his/her bodily activities in a rather liberating way, occasionally surpassing biological limitations. When the Avatars exercise they imitate the movements of the physical sport world, namely they mimic the physical body. Further studies are needed to show the influence of an Avatar’s performance-bodily exercises on the real user, the individual behind the computer screen.
KEYWORDS: Avatars, Fitness Club, Second Life, the body, embodiment,  bodily exercises, physical activity...

The research outlined in this chapter focuses on the cognitive components of illness behaviour. Measures of several distinct cognitive styles that may be involved in the translation of distress into somatic or psychosocial symptoms are proposed. The ability to measure multiple cognitive styles that make independent contributions to the outcomes of illness experience has application to the study of everyday symptom reporting as well as to primary care patient populations who appear to somatize or psychologize their distress.

The global dissemination of COVID-19 creates confusion and ambiguity in nearly every aspect of life, including fear of contagion, heightened awareness of the mortality of self and family members, lack of power, and distrust of experts and decision-makers. In this stressful situation, the question arises as to what mechanisms distinguish between adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation. The theory of Motivated Cue-Integration (MCI) is a novel theory of self-regulation that provides a new perspective on the effect of COVID-19 on self-regulation deficiency as an example of psychological distress. Inspired by predictive coding, social cognition, embodied cognition, and experiential approach, MCI suggests that self-regulation is based on interaction between (1) high-level values and goals, (2) low-level interoceptive and exteroceptive signals, and (3) trust in epistemic authority or a significant other. Motivated Cue-Integration posits that individuals create meaning by making moment-to-...

Background: Somatization is a multisomatoform disorder characterized by medically unexplained, functional or psychosomatic symptoms. Similar somatic symptoms are key components of depression and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). Methods: This paper reviews the evidence that such symptoms are organically based. We use the term ''physio-somatic'' to describe these symptoms. Results: Inflammation, cell-mediated immune (CMI) activation and alterations in the tryptophan catabo-lite (TRYCAT) pathway are associated with the physio-somatic symptoms of depression, ME/CFS and/or somatization. Proinflammatory cytokines, decreased tryptophan and aberrations in TRYCATs may cause physio-somatic symptoms, such as fatigue, autonomic symptoms, hyperalgesia and somatic presentations. Conclusions: The data suggest coordinated and interacting biological pathways driving the occurrence of physio-somatic symptoms across these three disorders, giving a biologically validated ''pathway pheno-type''. These data have far-reaching implications for DSM-IV diagnostic conceptualizations of somatization (and ME/CFS) suggesting the presence of an emerging organic explanation. Future research should focus on the role of immune regulation, and coordination , of neuronal activity and, through larger data sets, ultimately creating new, biologically validated classification rules. These data have implications for the development of novel therapies utilizing these insights, buttressing the role of psychotherapy in psychosomatic presentations.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms are widely reported in association with both hepatitis C and IFNα treatment [1]its
sequelae, and its treatment. In particular, interferon, a primary component of treatment for chronic hepatitis C, has been
strongly associated with depressive symptoms. This review summarizes current knowledge about the etiology, course, and
treatment of neuropsychiatric problems associated with hepatitis C and interferon alpha (IFN-alpha and lead to discontinuation
of interferon in up to 13% of cases [2]. When on interferon treatment, cognitive, affective and behavioral symptoms
are not easily distinguished from each other or from depression [2,3]mechanism, course, and treatment of neuropsychiatric
problems associated with interferon alfa (IFN-alpha. The challenge is even higher if in somatoform cases. We describe a case
of somatoform disorder while on classic therapy for hepatitis C and discuss the management of the patient main complaints
and evolution.