title: [The influence of the attachment dimensions "anxiety" and "avoidance" on psychosomatic complaints].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In contemporary literature, insecure attachment styles have been identified as nonspecific vulnerability factors for psychosomatic disorders. Further, they are also associated with aggravation of the assessment of complaints (Maunder and Hunter 2001; Strauß and Schwark 2007). The present study investigates the extent to which attachment-related anxiety and avoidance are related with the intensity of psychosomatic complaints.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prior to an initial diagnostic interview, 166 patients from a psychosomatic outpatient department were tested with the questionnaires ECR-RD and SCL-90-R. A model of two latent attachment dimensions, fear (BANG) and avoidance (BVER) in close relationships, underlying the scales of the ECR-RD, was used (Ehrenthal et al. 2009). The GSI was chosen as a good validated, global value from SCL-90-R (Franke 2002) for measuring the psychosomatic pressure caused by complaints.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As expected, our results demonstrate strong positive correlations between BANG and GSI, whereas BVER and GSI showed a moderate, positive connection. Thus, both attachment dimensions were able to predict a significant ratio of GSI in a multiple regression analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study confirmed a systematic relationship between insecure attachment representations and psychosomatic complaints, although some limitations must be noted due to the heterogeneous answer patterns of the BVER-scale. However, in our view, the ECR-RD measure should be used in other clinical studies, the goal being to become a diagnostic standard screening tool for assessing the influence of patients' attachment style on their presentation of psychosomatic complaints.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Psychosomatischen Medizin und Psychotherapie der Universität Düsseldorf. marc-andre.wulf@lvr.de
authors.forename: Marc-Andre
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Wulf
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Machado Apolinário
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tress
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D019962:Reactive Attachment Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult