Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-j7khd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-30T04:41:49.051Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

Information

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 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Blumer, D. & Heilbronn, M. (1981) The pain-prone disorder a clinical and psychological profile. Psychosomatic, 22, 395–402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boerema, W J., Burnand, K. G. & Fitzpatrick, R. I. (1981) Acute appendicitis. Australia New Zealand Journal of Surgery, 51, 165–168.Google Scholar
Chang, A. R. (1981) An analysis of the pathology of 3003 appendices. Australia New Zealand Journal of Surgery, 51, 169–178.Google Scholar
Creed, F. (1981) Life events and appendicectomy. The Lancet, i, 1381–1385.Google Scholar
Demien, S. & Bakal, D. (1981) Illness behaviour and chronic headache. Pain, 10, 221–229.Google Scholar
DeVaul, R. A. & Faillace, L. A. (1978) Persistent pain and illness insistence: a medical profile of proneness to surgery. American Journal of Surgery, 135, 828–833.Google Scholar
Engel, G. L. (1959) ‘Psychogenic’ pain and the pain-prone patient. American Journal of Medicine, 26, 899–918.Google Scholar
Ingram, P. W., Evans, G. & Oppenheim, A. N. (1965) Right iliac fossa pain in young women. British Medical Journal, 2, 149–151.Google Scholar
Jess, P., Bjerregaard, B., Brynitz, S. et al. (1981) Acute appendicitis: prospective trial concerning diagnostic accuracy and complications. American Journal of Surgery, 141, 232–234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, J. A. K. (1961) Appendicitis in young women. The Lancet, ii, 815–817.Google Scholar
Meyer, E., Unger, T. & Slaughter, R. (1964) Investigation of a psychological hypothesis in appendectomies. Psychosomatic Medicine, 26, 671–681.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilowsky, L. (1978) A general classification of abnormal illness behaviours. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 51, 131–137.Google Scholar
Pilowsky, L., Murrell, T. G. C. & Gordon, A. (1979) The development of a screening method for abnormal illness behaviour. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 23, 203–207.Google Scholar
Spielberger, C. D., Gorusch, R. L. & Lushene, R. (1969) The State-trait Anxiety Inventory: Test Manual. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Zung, W. W. K. (1965) A self-rating depression scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 12, 63–70.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.