LIFE-EVENTS AND PSYCHIATRIC-SYMPTOMS IN A GENERAL PSYCHIATRY CLINIC -THE ROLE OF INTRUSION AND AVOIDANCE

Recent literature has been concerned with the relationship between lif e-events and psychological symptoms, and more particularly studies of communities subsequent to disasters have suggested the presence of int rusive cognitions to be a mediating variable. In this investigation ne w patients presenting to a general community psychiatric clinic over a four-month period completed a brief Life-event scale, the Impact of E vent Scale (IES) and the 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). A ppropriate statistical methods were employed to model the intervening role of IES scores between numbers of life-events and subsequent psych iatric symptomatology. Data was collected on 48 subjects, for whom it was shown that IES score accounted for the reporting of psychiatric sy mptoms following adversity. It appeared to be the dimension of cogniti ve intrusion that mediated this effect, with cognitive avoidance occup ying a subsidiary, reactive role. There was also evidence of specific relationships between intrusion and anxiety and somatic subscales of t he GHQ, and between avoidance and depression. Despite small numbers an d simple measures, the findings supported the post-disaster studies, a nd raises further questions about the emotional processing of adversit y.