Concurrent incidence of depression and physical symptoms among hostile young women.

Analyses of questionnaire responses from 166 young women on the Cook-Medley Hostility scale of the MMPI, Beck Depression Inventory, and Wahler Physical Symptoms Inventory indicated significant differences between hostile and nonhostile women on depression scores, ranging from mild mood disturbance to borderline clinical depression. Hostile women also endorsed more items which indicated pervasive somatic complaints such as nausea, fatigue, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular distress. These results are discussed in the context of negative emotion and degenerative disease.