SENSE OF COHERENCE AND PSYCHOSOMATIC OUTC OME - AN EMPIRICAL-INVESTIGATION ON SALUTOGENESIS

According to Aaron Antonovsky's model of salutogenesis health protecti ve resources by him conceptualisised as ''sense of coherence'' (SOC) d etermine decisively the ability to recuperate. We investigate the rela tionsship between treatment outcome and the sense of coherence measure d by the SOC questionnaire at the beginning (n = 81), during the inpat ient treatment phase and 6 month later (n = 70). For testing the psych ometric qualities we obtained additional data from the outpatient depa rtement (n = 461). SOC-Score increased significantly during inpatient treatment. Outcome of treatment could not be predicted by the initial SOC, but we found a highly significant relation between an increase in the SOC value and a decrease in complaints (SCL-90-R, r = .81). In ou r opinion, the application of the SOC in psychosomatic patients is res tricted, because there is a high overlap with psychic complaints (i.e. anxiety, depression).