Hypochondriasis and somatization related to personality and attitudes toward self

Better definition of the boundary between hypochondriasis and somatization was determined by measuring attitudes to self and personality dimensions as sociated with these syndromes. In this study, the primary care patients wit h hypochondriacal responses (HR) on the Illness Attitudes Scales or high so matic:concern (HSC) on the Symptom Questionnaire had more negative attitude s to self and more psychological distress than the matched group of primary care control subjects. The HR subjects were different from the non-MR subj ects on two of five personality domains on the NEO Personality Inventory (N EO)-Five-Factor Inventory, and the HSC subjects were different from the non -MSG subjects on four of jive NEO domains. Analysis of variance demonstrate d that somatization explained most of the variance in attitudes, personalit y, and psychological distress, but hypochondriasis uniquely contributed onl y to thanatophobia. The authors discuss the boundary between hypochondriasi s and somatization and offer a descriptive model of this relationship.