[Different lay etiologic attributions of psychogenically ill probrands from an epidemiologic field study]

The correlation between causal attributions of symptoms and sociodemographic, psychometric and clinical variables among psychogenic impaired persons is investigated in this paper. 114 individuals, who had presented psychogenic symptoms in the last year, were selected from the representative sample of the Mannheim Cohort Study. Two extreme groups have been identified through one Scale of Disease Conception: one with a somatogenic (n = 80) and the other with a psychogenic conception (n = 34). Female, younger and well educated individuals predominate in the group with psychogenic conception. In FPI the group with psychogenic conception is characterized by high depressivity, emotional lability, aggressivity, inhibition, irritability, anxiety and frankness. The diagnosis psychoneurose (ICD) is also more frequent in this group. The psychic impairment is more severe in the group with psychogenic conception (Impairment Score). Subjects of the group with psychogenic conception utilized psychotherapeutic services more frequently. In the logistical regression the variables agecohort, the FPIdimensions "Sociability" and "Inhibition", the number of psychic and physical symptoms in the last year and the BSS-subscale "psychic impairment" prove to be relevant in the estimate of relative risk for the type of causal explanation for symptoms.