[Childhood stress and neurosis--results of a control group study]

Biographical stress-risk was compared between a group of 68 neurotic-psychosomatic patients and a parallel control group matched in terms of age and sex. This risk rate was established using a so-called risk-index in which 8 known and variably weighted risk factors were taken into consideration. The following hypotheses were confirmed in the study: Neurotically ill persons show a higher stress-risk (risk-index) in their childhood and pre-adolescence than is found in healthy persons. A person's stress-index is related to the degree of neurosis (r = .42).