[Correlations between personality changes and symptom changes in somatization disorders and anxiety disorders--a comparative study].

AIM: The comparison of the relations between personality changes and main symptom changes observed during complex integrative psychotherapy in 100 somatization patients and 100 anxiety disorder patients.

METHOD: Two self-descriptive measures--the 16PF of R.B. Cattell and the Symptom Checklist "O" were used in the study. The second measure chosen for the study was a 14-scale screen for the presence of functional disorder symptoms and 5 scales referring to phobias, general anxiety, somatization and conversions. Questionnaires were fulfilled twice--before and after psychotherapy.

RESULTS

It was observed that the main symptoms in the group of anxiety disordered patients decreased with the increase of sociability (r = 0.36 p < 0.001), activity and withstanding difficult situations (r = 0.35, p < 0.001) self-confidence (r = 0.21, p < 0.05) and the reduction of submission (r = -0.36 p < 0.001), however the main symptoms in the somatization disorder group lowered with the growth of the ego strength (r = 0.44, p < 0.001; r = 0.41 p < 0.001) and the reduction of imaginative sensitivity (r = -0.31, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

The results point out to the differences in the connections of the symptoms of functional disorders with the personality and confirm clinical reports on differences between somatization patients and neurotic patients.