ANXIETY IN EXPERIMENTALLY-INDUCED SOMATOFORM SYMPTOMS

This study examined the anxiety and pain reports in a group of subject s during a stimulation experiment in which the subjects were misinform ed that an electrical current was being conducted through electrodes a ttached to their heads. The experiment's purpose was to determine how the subjects' reporting of pain was related to their reporting of anxi ety over time. One subset of the subjects rated pain only, a second ra ted pain and anxiety, and a third rated pain and hunger. The three gro ups did not differ significantly in the frequency or intensity of thei r pain reports. The separate ratings for both anxiety and pain increas ed in a parallel manner. These results, however, do not support the th eories involving the suppression of awareness of affect in somatofom d isorders.