NEGATIVE AFFECT, RESPIRATORY REACTIVITY, AND SOMATIC COMPLAINTS IN A CO2 ENRICHED AIR INHALATION PARADIGM

Subjects scoring high on negative affectivity (NA) are known to report more psychosomatic complaints than subjects scoring low. According to the symptom perception hypothesis, high NA subjects attend more to so matic sensations and interpret these as more threatening. We investiga ted the relationship between NA and psychosomatic complaints in a grou p of high and low NA subjects (N = 72) in, (a) a questionnaire study, and (b) in a laboratory setting. The latter involved the inhalation of three different gas mixtures (room air, 5.5% and 7.5% CO2-enriched ai r) while respiratory responses were registered. Subjective complaints were measured after each trial. High NA subjects reported more complai nts than low NA subjects in the questionnaire study. However, NA had n o main effects on complaints in the laboratory study and did not inter act with the effects of gas mixture on complaints. During room air tri als, NA correlated only with general arousal complaints when a strong respiratory challenge had not been given before. The pattern of result s suggests that experimental inductions of complaints may largely wipe out NA-related differences in attentional/interpretative processes th at may mediate the NA-complaints link. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.