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Abnormal Illness Behaviour and Anxiety in Acute Non-Organic Abdominal Pain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

P. R. Joyce ,
J. A. Bushnell ,
J. W. B. Walshe  and
J. B. Morton
P. R. Joyce*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Christchurch Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand
J. A. Bushnell
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Christchurch Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand
J. W. B. Walshe
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Christchurch Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand
J. B. Morton
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery, Christchurch Clinical School of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand
*
∗Correspondence address: Sunnyside Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand.
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Abstract

Of 105 patients admitted to a surgical ward with acute abdominal pain, 18 were considered to be without evidence of any organic aetiology for this symptom. These ‘non-organic’ patients were almost all female and differed from the ‘organic’ patients in state anxiety and in the illness behaviour questionnaire scales of psychological versus somatic perception, denial and affective disturbance. The two groups of patients could be differentiated on the basis of scores derived from the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 149 , Issue 1 , July 1986 , pp. 57 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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