Effects of gender and marital status on somatic symptoms of patients attending a mind/body medicine clinic

Authors
Mutsuhiro Nakao, MD, MPH, Gregory Fricchione, MD, Patricia C. Zuttermeister, MA, Patricia Myers, Arthur J. Barsky, MD, Herbert Benson, MD
Publication
Behavioral Medicine
Volume 26, Issue 4, pp 159-168
Benson Technique  Stress Perception Scale  Symptom Checklist-90  Medical Symptom Checklist  Gender
Abstract

To clarify the mechanisms of gender-related mind/body relationships, the authors analyzed the characteristics of 1,132 outpatients (848 women and 284 men) attending a mind/body medicine clinic. At entry in the program, the patients completed the Medical Symptom Checklist, Symptom Checklist-90 revised (SCL-90R), and Stress Perception Scale. Women reported 9 out of 12 symptoms (fatigue, insomnia, headache, back pain, joint or limb pain, palpitations, constipation, nausea, and dizziness) more frequently than the men did. Being a woman was a predictor of the total number of somatic symptoms endorsed. SCL-90R somatization scores were significantly higher in nonmarried women than in married women. Perceived stress ratings of family and health were higher in women than in men, despite the lower degree of perceived stress concerning work. Women, especially nonmarried women, were more likely to report somatic discomfort. Gender appears to be an important factor in relation to the report of somatic symptoms in stress-related conditions.

Web and Email Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1..., https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11409...
Related Listings
The effects of relaxation response meditation o...
Authors
Laurie Keefer, Edward B Blanchard
Journal
Behavior Research and Therapy
·
Benson Technique, IBS
In this study, Herbert Benson's (1975) Relaxation Response Meditation program was tested as a possible treatment for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Participants were 16 adults who were matched into pairs based on presence of Axis I disorder, primary IBS symptoms and demographic features and randomized to either a six week meditation condition or a six week wait list symptom monitoring condition. Thirteen participants completed treatment and follow-up. All subjects assigned to the Wai […]
A synergistic mindsets intervention protects ad...
Authors
David S. Yeager, Christopher J. Bryan, James J. Gross, Jared S. Murray, Danielle Krettek Cobb, Pedro H.F. Santos, Hannah Gravelding, Meghann Johnson, Jeremy P. Jamieson
Journal
Nature
·
Stress, Anxiety
Social-evaluative stressors—experiences in which people feel they could be judged negatively—pose a major threat to adolescent mental health1,2,3 and can cause young people to disengage from stressful pursuits, resulting in missed opportunities to acquire valuable skills. Here we show that replicable benefits for the stress responses of adolescents can be achieved with a short (around 30-min), scalable 'synergistic mindsets' intervention. This intervention, which is a self-administere […]
Three Case Reports of the Metabolic and Electro...
Authors
Herbert Benson, M.D., M. S. Malhotra, M.D., Ralph F. Goldman, Ph.D., Gregg D. Jacobs, Ph.D., P. Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.
Journal
Behavioral Medicine
·
Buddhist Meditation
To examine the extent to which advanced meditative practices might alter body metabolism and the electroencephalogram (EEG), we investigated three Tibetan Buddhist monks living in the Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, India. In a study carried out in February 1988, we found that during the practice of several different meditative practices, resting metabolism ([Vdot]O2) could be both raised (up to 61%) and lowered (down to 64%). The reduction from rest is the largest ever reported. On the […]