Psychiatric symptoms associated with scleroderma

Background: The prevalence of psychiatric symptoms and hostility factors in patients with scleroderma, although a matter of clinical interest, it is r ather poorly studied. Methods: Thirty female patients with scleroderma were investigated. Thirty-three healthy women were used as a comparison group. The applied psychometric instruments were the Hostility and Direction of Ho stility Questionnaire (HDHQ), the Delusions Symptoms States Inventory/state s of Anxiety and Depression (DSSI/sAD) and the Symptom Check List-SOR (SCL- 90R). Results: The scleroderma patients reported significantly increased de pression and anxiety, somatization, interpersonal sensitivity and obsessive -compulsiveness. Paranoid ideation and psychotic symptoms scores were also increased. On hostility, they presented significantly higher scores predomi nantly on guilt. Conclusions: Psychiatric symptomatology in the form of anx iety, depression, obsessive-compulsiveness, somatization and feeldings of g uilt were reported by the majority of the patients with scleroderma. Copyri ght (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.