Magical Thinking in Somatoform Disorders: An Exploratory Study among Patients with Suspected Allergies

• Published in: Psychopathology Vol. 44; no. 5; pp. 283 - 288
• Main Authors: Hausteiner-Wiehle, C., Sokollu, F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland Karger 01.07.2011; S. Karger AG
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Allergies; Anxiety - diagnosis; Anxiety - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition & reasoning; Cross-Sectional Studies; Delusions - diagnosis; Delusions - psychology; Female; Humans; Hypersensitivity - diagnosis; Hypersensitivity - psychology; Male; Medical sciences; Mental disorders; Middle Aged; Original Paper; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Somatoform Disorders - diagnosis; Somatoform Disorders - psychology; Somatoform disorders. Psychosomatics; Surveys and Questionnaires; Thinking; Allergy; Magical thinking; Somatoform disorders; Human; Immunopathology; Magical thought; Somatoform disorder
• ISSN: 0254-4962; 1423-033X
• DOI: 10.1159/000322795

Background: In order to reconceptualize somatoform disorders (SFDs), the psychological characteristics of SFD patients are increasingly investigated. The cognitive style of magical thinking (MT) has not been studied so far in patients with SFDs. Sampling and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 201 allergy workup patients were interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV; they answered a set of self-report questionnaires including the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire subscale for MT and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ). The expression of MT was explored in 61 patients with SFDs compared to 140 patients without SFDs. Results: Patients with SFDs reached higher scores of MT, also when controlled for gender, depression, and anxiety. In particular, they stated more frequently that they were believers in telepathy (64 vs. 44%) and clairvoyance (43 vs. 16%). MT correlated only weakly with somatization/somatic symptom severity, depression, and anxiety. Conclusions: Among allergy workup patients with SFDs we found considerable MT. This indicates that SFD patients may tend to mistake correlation for causality in a more general way, and not just in an illness-related context. The relation to indicators of illness severity (somatic symptom severity/somatization, depression, and anxiety) was relatively weak. Possible implications for research, diagnostics, and therapy are discussed.