Natural history of male psychological health, IV: what kinds of men do not get psychosomatic illness

Abstract

This article reports on interrelationships between the medical and emotional health of 95 men who were prospectively followed from age 18 to 53. Fifty of these originally healthy men developed illness patterns sometimes called psychosomatic (ulcer, colitis, allergy, hypertension, musculo-skeletal disorders). These men were compared with the other 45 similarly studied men who never developed such illnesses. Although men who developed "psychosomatic" illnesses were more likely to seek medical or psychiatric attention, they exhibited only slightly more psychopathology. Both as children and as adults they had more physical illness of all kinds. They were less likely to indulge in vacations and athletics and more likely to use tranquilizers and excessive alcohol. Men with "psychosomatic" illnesses experienced a greater variety of somatic symptoms under stress, but the loci of these somatic symptoms shifted over time and were not significantly associated with the sites of psychosomatic illness. Premorbidly, the 20 men who were eventually to develop serious irreversible physical illness of any kind reflected far more psychopathology than the 45 men who developed psychosomatic illness.