Zunhammer, Matthias and Eberle, Hanna and Eichhammer, Peter and Busch, Volker (2013) Somatic Symptoms Evoked by Exam Stress in University Students: The Role of Alexithymia, Neuroticism, Anxiety and Depression. PLOS ONE, 8 (12): UNSP e8491. ISSN 1932-6203,
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Objective: The etiology of somatization is incompletely understood, but could be elucidated by models of psychosocial stress. Academic exam stress has effectively been applied as a naturalistic stress model, however its effect on somatization symptoms according to ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria has not been reported so far. Baseline associations between somatization and personality traits, such as alexithymia, have been studied exhaustively. Nevertheless, it is largely unknown if personality traits have an explanatory value for stress induced somatization. Methods: This longitudinal, quasi-experimental study assessed the effects of university exams on somatization and the reversal of effects after an exam-free period. Repeated-observations were obtained within 150 students, measuring symptom intensity before, during and after an exam period, according to the Screening for Somatoform Symptoms 7-day (SOMS-7d). Additionally, self-reports on health status were used to differentiate between medically explained and medically unexplained symptoms. Alexithymia, neuroticism, trait-anxiety and baseline depression were surveyed using the Toronto-Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Big-Five Personality Interview (NEO-FFI), the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI-II). These traits were competitively tested for their ability to explain somatization increases under exam stress. Results: Somatization significantly increased across a wide range of symptoms under exam stress, while health reports pointed towards a reduction in acute infections and injuries. Neuroticism, alexithymia, trait anxiety and depression explained variance in somatization at baseline, but only neuroticism was associated with symptom increases under exam stress. Conclusion: Exam stress is an effective psychosocial stress model inducing somatization. A comprehensive quantitative description of bodily symptoms under exam stress is supplied. The results do not support the stress-alexithymia hypothesis, but favor neuroticism as a personality trait of importance for somatization.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | MEDICALLY UNEXPLAINED SYMPTOMS; SOMATOFORM DISORDERS; CONCURRENT VALIDITY; GENERAL-POPULATION; SALIVARY CORTISOL; SOMATIZATION; SCALE; PERSONALITY; RESPONSES; VALIDATION; |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 570 Life sciences 600 Technology > 610 Medical sciences Medicine |
| Divisions: | Medicine > Lehrstuhl für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie Human Sciences > Institut für Psychologie > Lehrstuhl für Psychologie I (Allgemeine Psychologie I und Methodenlehre) - Prof. Dr. Mark W. Greenlee |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Mar 2020 09:53 |
| Last Modified: | 06 Apr 2020 05:37 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/15515 |
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