Somatoform symptoms profiles in relation to psychological disorders - A population classification analysis in a large sample of general adults

Abstract

In order to identifying somatoform symptoms profiles, classifying study population and evaluating of psychological disorders in extracted classes, we carried out a cross-sectional study on 4762 Iranian adults. Somatoform symptoms were assessed using a comprehensive 30-items questionnaire and psychological disorders were evaluated by 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaires. Factor analysis and factor mixture modeling (FMM) were used for data analysis. Four somatoform symptoms profiles were extracted, including 'psycho-fatigue', 'gastrointestinal', 'neuro-skeletal' and `pharyngeal-respiratory'. According to FMM results, a two-class four-factor structure, based somatoform symptoms, was identified in our study population. Two identified classes were labeled as "low psycho-fatigue complaints" and "high psycho-fatigue complaints". The scores of psychological disorders profile was significantly associated with four somatoform symptoms profiles in both classes; however the stronger relationship was observed in high psycho-fatigue complaints class. The prevalence of all the somatoform symptoms among participants assigned to the "high psycho-fatigue complaints" class was significantly higher than other class. We concluded that somatoform symptoms have a dimensional-categorical structure within our study population. Our study also provided informative pathways on the association of psychological disorders with somatoform symptoms. These findings could be useful for dealing with treatment's approaches.