Case report on a sick building: analysis and interpretation in the context of its disease history

The sick building syndrome is a widespread, modern health problem with a probably very multifactorial causation. Studies of the syndrome have shown associations between its occurrence and a wide variety of factors related to the buildings, work environments and the individual occupants. The associations are often inconsistent and contradictory. The presented case report indicates that this might depend on the subjective nature of most of the symptoms of the syndrome, which makes it difficult to study and interpret. The case consists of a municipal office building where the personnel experienced two very protracted episodes of sick building syndrome. The study of it suggests that psychogenic mechanisms sometimes might be a stronger partial causative factor in the etiology of the sick building syndrome than is generally considered, and that quantitative information should be supplemented by qualitative in the study of sick buildings.