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Journal ArticleDOI

Psychiatric Symptoms in Community, Clinic, and Mental Hospital Groups

01 May 1970-American Journal of Psychiatry (American Psychiatric Publishing)-Vol. 126, Iss: 11, pp 1611-1621
TL;DR: Responses to questions about 46 symptoms show that quantitative resemblance exists, and regardless of clinicians' ratings of severity, the particular symptoms tended to be judged less serious by those who reported them in nonpatient than in patient groups.
Abstract: Do large proportions of the general population show psychiatric symptomatology resembling that seen in psychiatric patients? Responses by 248 adult leader, community sample, and patient subjects in Washington Heights. New York City, to questions about 46 symptoms show that quantitative resemblance exists. This resemblance is due mainly, however, to the high frequency of less serious symptoms in the nonpatient groups. Moreover, regardless of clinicians' ratings of severity, the particular symptoms tended to be judged less serious by those who reported them in nonpatient than in patient groups.
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a disaggregated analysis of life-event effects shows that women are not pervasively more vulnerable to the effects of undesirable events than men, and that female vulnerability is largely confted to "network" events: life events that do not occur to the focal respondent but to someone in his or her social network who is considered important.
Abstract: Past research has shown that the emotional impact of undesirable life events is significantly greater among women than men. This finding has ted to speculation that women possess a deficit in coping capacity or in access to social support that renders them pervasively disadvantaged in responding emotionally to problematic situations. We present a different argument in this paper. We hypothesize and then document that women are not pervasively more vulnerable to the effects of undesirable events. A disaggregated analysis of life-event effects shows, further, that female vulnerability is largely conftned to "network" events: life events that do not occur to the focal respondent but to someone in his or her social network who is considered important. Further results are presented to argue that this greater vulnerability is due to the greater emotional involvement of women in the lives of those around them. It is demonstrated that this emotional cost of caring is responsible for a substantial part of the overall relationship between sex and distress. It is well documented that women in Western society have significantly higher rates of psychological distress than men (Al-Issa, 1982). In sociology, most discussions of this fact have revolved around the idea that women" s social roles are more stress provoking and less fulfilling than those occupied by men (Gove, 1978). This social-role explanation has fostered a substantial body of research on sex differences in chronic role-related stress. This work has typically been based on indirect measures of stress. Marital status, numbers and ages of children, and employment status have been used to make inferences about chronic stress (Gove, 1972; Radloff, 1975; Gove and Geerken, 1977; Aneshensel et al., 1981). For example, the sex-distress relationship has been shown to be more pronounced among the married than the previously married or never married (Gove, 1972; Fox, 1980). This specification has been interpreted as evidence that role-related stress and resources are responsi

954 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Questions are raised about the nature of nonspecific distress in relation to Frank's construct of "demoralization," the value of the measured dimensions of psychopathology that contrast with it, and the relation of PERI, which uses a self-report format, to diagnostic interviews developed here and abroad.
Abstract: • This interview study investigated nonspecific psychological distress in the general population. A probability sample of 200 adults was drawn from heterogenous sex, class, and ethnic groups in New York City. Twenty-five scales were developed. Eight reflect a single dimension of nonspecific distress (eg, Poor Self-esteem, Sadness, and Perceived Physical Health) and 17 are distinct from these and from each other (eg, False Beliefs and Perceptions, Manic Characteristics, Insomnia, Antisocial History, and illness-linked Somatic Problems). Both sets of scales have become part of a new interview instrument, the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview (PERI). Questions are raised about the nature of nonspecific distress in relation to Frank's construct of "demoralization," the value of the measured dimensions of psychopathology that contrast with it, and the relation of PERI, which uses a self-report format, to diagnostic interviews developed here and abroad.

874 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is found that lower-SES vulnerability is not confined to income but extends to education and occupational status as well, and it is concluded that differential vulnerability reflects more than a simple economic reality.
Abstract: Previous research has documented consistently that persons holding low-socioeconomic status (SES) positions are more strongly affected emotionally by undesirable life events than are their higher-status counterparts. Two types of resources have been implicated in this differential vulnerability: financial resources and a broader class of coping resources, including social support and resilient personality characteristics. We present an analysis that disaggregates measure of life events and of SES to identify which events and which components of SES are most important for understanding differential vulnerability. We document that the lower-SES vulnerability persists across all types of personal events. In addition, we find that differential vulnerability is not confined to income but extends to education and occupational status as well. On the basis of these patterns, we conclude that differential vulnerability reflects more than a simple economic reality. Previous research offers speculative evidence that status differences in past and current social environments may explain differential vulnerability, especially through their effects on the socialization of resilient personality characteristics. We propose future research that could help to evaluate the validity of these speculations.

652 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors surveyed 997 elderly people living in the community and found that the rate of significant dysphoric symptomatology was 14.7% and individuals with symptoms of a major depressive disorder had depressive symptoms associated with impaired physical health.
Abstract: The authors surveyed 997 elderly people living in the community and found that the rate of significant dysphoric symptomatology was 14.7%. Forty-five (4.5%) of these individuals suffered from dysphoric symptoms only, and 37 (3.7%) had symptoms of a major depressive disorder. Eighteen (1.8%) suffered from symptoms of primary depressive disorder and 19 (1.9%) from symptoms of secondary depressive disorder. Sixty-five (6.5%) had depressive symptoms associated with impaired physical health. The frequency of widowhood, impairment in social resources, and impairment in economic resources was greater for individuals with symptoms of a major depressive disorder. The entire sample used psychiatric services at a very low rate.

585 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This national representative sample provides age- and gender-specific norms that will allow for comparisons and interpretations of fatigue scores in future studies, and no firm associations between fatigue and social variables were found.

562 citations


Cites background from "Psychiatric Symptoms in Community, ..."

  • ...Still, physicians tend to rate fatigue of little importance [9] even though chronic fatigue is associated with disability at the same level as chronic medical conditions [8]....

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