[Neurotic and depressive status related to organic pathology in patients in thermal therapy]

Females and males with no psychiatric history, 25-75 years old, attending thermal facilities in Boario Terme (N = 449) and in Sangemini Terme (N = 40) were administered, on the 2nd-3rd day of their admission, a questionnaire expressly conceive in order to declare conscious motivations for thermal treatments and, in addiction, the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ), the Zung Self Rating Scale for Depression (ZUNG-D) and the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), in order to detect neurotic symptoms and/or anxious or depressive complaints in this kind of population. A re-test was performed after 10 days by 73 subjects, in order to verify the impact of thermal treatments on psychoneurotic profiles. Baseline data were compared with those from normal controls and psychiatric outpatients. All statistical comparisons (probands versus matched controls; test versus re-test) were analysed by means of two-tailed Student "t" test (lever of significance: p less than 0.05). In the light of the data so obtained, subjects attending thermal facilities show a typical MHQ psychoneurotic profile, more marked in females and in subjects with gastrointestinal referred somatic disease and partially responding to thermal treatments, which supports the hypothesis that a particular form of neurosis may play a significant role in motivating request of thermal therapies. The results are largely discussed.