DEPRESSION AND SOMATIC SYMPTOMS - A CROSS-CULTURAL-STUDY

The study was carried out by the same research team in two metropolita n hospitals, one in Greece (N = 60) and one in Australia (N = 56). Sub jects comprised patients consecutively admitted with a DSM-III-R diagn osis of depressive disorder, all of whom completed questionnaire measu res of depression, anxiety and somatic symptoms. Clinical concepts and practices in the two hospitals were very similar. Overall levels of d epression, anxiety and somatic symptoms in the two samples were almost identical, but there were differences in the pattern of somatic compl aints: Greeks scored significantly higher on dizziness, paraesthesiae and masticatory spasms, and Australians scored significantly higher on drowsiness, hypersomnia and non-refreshing sleep, with the latter two items being the best discriminators of the two samples using discrimi nant function analysis. These findings, combined with factor analysis, suggested that symptoms associated with hyperventilation in the Greek sample, and with sleep disturbance in the Australian sample, explaine d most of the differences between them.