Personality disorders and somatic diseases (the problem of hypochondrical development of personality)
Smulevich, A.B.; Volel', B.A.
Zhurnal Nevrologii i Psikhiatrii Imeni S.S. Korsakova 108(5): 4-12
2008
ISSN/ISBN: 1997-7298 PMID: 18577951 Document Number: 616948
The typology of hypochondrical development of personality is presented on the basis of observation of 142 patients, 82 males and 60 females, mean age 45,7+/-3,8 years, with cardiac, dermatological and oncologic pathologies. 7 types of hypochondrical development of personality were singled out as paranoiac, aberrant type, overvalued, neurotic, masked hypochondria, "new life" type and hypochondrical dysthymia, and patterns of their formation were specified. Assessment of the contribution of a constitutional personality or somatic pathology to the clinical presentations and dynamics of personality disorders revealed that in some cases a personality disorder and a somatic disease interacted as equals separately (the hypochondrical development, neurotic and masked hypochondria types); in others cases, there was the distinct parallelism in the influence of the somatic factor and constitutional predisposition (paranoiac type, the development of personality pathology by the types of aberrant or overvalued hypochondria) or symptoms were completely determined by a somatic factor ("new life" and hypochondrical dysthymia types).