Somatosensory Amplification and Psychopathological Symptoms: The Mediating Roles of Meteoropathy and Meteosensitivity

Background: The mental health effects associated with weather conditions are diverse, indicating that individual susceptibility may play a significant role in this relationship. This study investigates whether somatosensory amplification is linked to meteosensitivity, meteoropathy, and psychopathological symptoms and whether meteoropathy and meteosensitivity serve as mediators in this relationship. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 523 participants from the general population. Psychopathological symptoms were assessed with the GFQ-58, somatosensory amplification with the SSAS-PL, and meteoropathy and meteosensitivity with the METEO-PL. Hierarchical linear regression was used to examine whether somatosensory amplification, meteoropathy, and meteosensitivity explained variance in psychopathological symptoms. A multiple mediator model was then estimated within the structural equation modeling framework using bootstrapping. The model was also tested separately for each of the 13 GFQ-58 symptom domains. Results: Somatosensory amplification accounted for a substantial portion of the variance in psychopathological symptoms (R² = 0.247, p < 0.001). Upon incorporating meteoropathy and meteosensitivity, the explained variance increased to R² = 0.571 (p < 0.001), with the increment being statistically significant (F(2, 521) = 32.12, p < 0.001). The indirect effect of somatosensory amplification via meteoropathy and meteosensitivity was significant (b = 0.851, 95% CI [0.661, 1.042], p < 0.001), and the direct effect also remained significant (b = 0.385, 95% CI [0.177, 0.594], p < 0.001), indicating partial statistical mediation. Significant indirect effects were also observed for poor social relationships, cognitive impairments, depressive symptoms, manic symptoms, anxiety symptoms, eating disorder symptoms, sleep problems, and somatic symptoms. Conclusions: Meteoropathy and meteosensitivity may partially account for the association between somatosensory amplification and psychopathological symptoms. The findings indicate that susceptibility to weather-related symptoms may be pertinent to the association between amplified bodily experiences and specific psychopathological symptoms.