Psychosomatic Disorders in Psychoses

Abstract

Other investigators have remarked on the low incidence of psycho- somatic disturbances in a psychotic hospital population. An incidence of 3.4% was found in the psychotic group admitted during one year to the Boston State Hospital. The 20 cases found to have psychosomatic involvements suffered from the following complaints: headache, hypertension, dermatitis, mucous colitis, asthma, peptic ulcer, and epilepsy. In 8 of the 20 patients there was found to be a reciprocal relationship between the psychosis and the psychosomatic disorder. During periods when the psychosis was marked, the psychosomatic disturbance was nonexistent or at a minimum, and when the psychosis abated there would be an exacerbation of psychosomatic symptoms. No correlation was found between specific psychosomatic disorders and specific psychoses. It is suggested that psychosomatic and psychotic disorders are mutually imcompatible and that they do not frequently occur in the same person at the same time.