Emotional expressivity and somatization symptoms in clinically depressed patients

Abstract

Somatization might be defined as a process by which psychological, emotional pains and distress is expressed as physical symptoms without a known organic basis. This study aims to examining somatization symptoms among clinically depressed patients with White-American and Hispanic background. Participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder without psychotic features (DSM-V) completed self-report measures for somatization, depression, emotional expressivity (EE), and demographics. The findings suggest that patients low on emotional expressivity may tend to experience and report more bodily pains and complains than those who are emotionally expressive. No link between EE and depression was observed. Women scored higher on somatization then men in this study. In addition, Hispanics reported more somatization symptoms than their White American counterparts. The results of this study might contribute to provision of a clearer picture to distinguish between somatization syndrome and other actual physical conditions.