Anxiety in experimentally induced somatoform symptoms

This study examined the anxiety and pain reports in a group of subjects during a stimulation experiment in which the subjects were misinformed that an electrical current was being conducted through electrodes attached to their heads. The experiment's purpose was to determine how the subjects' reporting of pain was related to their reporting of anxiety over time. One subset of the subjects rated pain only, a second rated pain and anxiety, and a third rated pain and hunger. The three groups did not differ significantly in the frequency or intensity of their pain reports. The separate ratings for both anxiety and pain increased in a parallel manner. These results, however, do not support the theories involving the suppression of awareness of affect in somatofom disorders.