title: Defense styles explain psychiatric symptoms: an empirical study.
abstract: To examine the relation between psychiatric symptoms and defense mechanisms, we administered two questionnaires, the Symptom Check-list 90 (SCL-90) and the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) to 122 psychiatric out-patients and to a community sample of 337 subjects. Using regression analysis, we found that 51.8% of the variation in subject's Global Severity Index value could be explained by his defense style. Of the three defense styles, the immature style explained most of the variation in the symptoms. We found little overall evidence for specific connections between particular defenses and symptoms. Projection and dissociation were central in most of the symptom dimensions. We compared patients and controls with the same level of general symptom severity and found that patients used significantly more devaluation and splitting, and controls used significantly more altruism and idealization. Whether defenses predispose to certain symptomatology or are one of its aspects is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Holi
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Sammallahti
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Aalberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires