Abnormal illness behavior and psychiatric disorders: A study in an outpatient clinic in Japan

Abnormal illness behavior, such as hypochondriacal attitude and inappropria te treatment-seeking, has been associated with various psychiatric disorder s in which patients tend to abuse medical services and seek inappropriate t reatment in general practice clinics rather than psychiatric clinics. Howev er, the relationship between illness behavior and psychiatric disorders in Japan is yet to be elucidated. We examined the abnormal illness behavior of 243 patients who visited the outpatient department of psychiatry at Saga M edical School Hospital, Saga, Japan, using a Japanese version of the Illnes s Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ). Multivariate analysis indicated significant association between some of the IBQ scale scores and age, sex and employme nt status. Patients with anxiety disorder scored higher on five of the seve n IBQ scales compared with patients with another major disorder (mood disor der, schizophrenia or somatoform disorder). When compared with the IBQ scal e scores reported in Australian patients in a psychiatric hospital, most of the IBQ scale scores differed significantly in our patients; a higher scor e among Japanese patients on the general hypochondriasis scale was most pro minent. A similar trend in IBQ scale scores was also noted among Japanese p atients visiting the hospital's general medicine clinic in comparison with Australian patients visiting a general practice clinic. Japanese patients w ith anxiety disorder may display the most salient abnormal illness behavior s among patients with psychiatric disorders. Sociocultural background may c ontribute to the characteristic abnormal illness behaviors of Japanese pati ents.