Impaired emotional processing and somatization : a correlation study

Abstract

Somatization, commonly defined as the expression of psychological distress in the form of physical complaints, is a persistent clinical problem as it leads its sufferers to excessively seek medical care for their symptoms. Somatic symptoms are common in the general population, and in some cases, people may experience these somatic symptoms as distressing, chronic, and disabling. Studies are increasingly demonstrating that having deficits in emotional processing contributes to somatization, however, the conceptualization of emotional processing in these studies has mostly been restricted to only one specific dimension of emotional processing which is alexithymia. This principle aim of this research was to explore the relationship between deficits in emotional processing and somatization in Lebanese adults aged 18-40, as well as the association of these two variables with various sociodemographic and health variables. An quantitative questionnaire was distributed online containing: (1) a demographic and health questionnaire; (2) the Emotional Processing scale version 25 (EPS-25); (3) the 15-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-15); (4) the 12-item Somatic Symptom Disorder-B criteria scale (SSD-12); (5) the 8-item Patient Health Question depression scale (PHQ-8); and (6) the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7). A total of 302 participants were recruited using convenience sampling. Results indicated that people who display greater deficits in emotional processing were more likely to report somatic symptoms and were more burdened by them. Depression was the factor most likely to contribute to somatic severity while an impoverished emotional experience was the most likely to increase psychological symptom burden. The findings suggest that the treatment of somatization may be more effective if it incorporates emotion-focused elements that address the deficits in emotional processing that are more prevalent in individuals who somatize.