Memory performance related to organic and psychosocial illness attributions in somatoform pain disorder patients.
OBJECTIVE
Somatoform disorders are characterized by patterns of persistent bodily complaints. Organic illness attributions are assumed to represent a central supporting factor in the development and maintenance of somatoform disorders. Using group control design, we aimed to investigate the processing of illness-belief-related word stimuli in somatoform pain disorder patients.


METHODS
Organic-related, psychosocial-related, and neutral word stimuli were presented to 14 somatoform pain patients with a predominantly organic illness attribution, 14 somatoform pain patients with a predominantly psychosocial illness attribution, and 14 control participants. Behavioral measures were taken during free recall and recognition tasks.


RESULTS
Our study revealed cognitive impairment in somatoform pain patients with an organic attribution of pain symptoms as compared to somatoform pain patients with a psychosocial attribution and healthy controls in both free recall test and recognition test. However, selective processing of word stimuli was not observed for patient groups.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that the observed impairment of memory performance in somatoform pain patients with an organic illness attribution may play an important role in the illness behavior of this patient group and ultimately result in the maintenance of symptoms and a more critical clinical outcome.
Nikendei
Christoph
C
Department of Psychosomatic and General Clinical Medicine, University Hospital, University of Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. christoph_nikendei@med.uni-heidelberg.de
Waldherr
Sina
S
Schiltenwolf
Marcus
M
Herzog
Wolfgang
W
Röhrig
Miriam
M
Walther
Stephan
S
Weisbrod
Matthias
M
Henningsen
Peter
P
Hanel
Gertraud
G
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D001244:Association; D001288:Attention; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003469:Culture; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D055809:Illness Behavior; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012660:Semantics; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning