The families of patients with somatization disorder

Abstract

This pilot study was undertaken to better understand the families of patients with somatization disorder. Two complementary methods were used to study six patients with somatization disorder and six control patients. The first method was a semistructured clinical family interview which was videotaped and independently reviewed by five raters. The second method was by the PAFS-Q, a standardized family questionnaire. The clinical interview distinguished cases from controls both in terms of individual relationships and behavior of the family as a whole. The PAFS-Q also distinguished cases from controls, showing significantly more dysfunction for the cases on five of its eight subscales. These two methods overlap in the content areas of intimacy and individuation, with correlation coefficients between the two methodologies ranging from 0.45 to 0.79. The authors conclude that the families of patients with somatization disorder are different than their unaffected counterparts.