The British Journal of Psychiatry 149: 57-62 (1986)
© 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Abnormal illness behaviour and anxiety in acute non-organic abdominal pain
PR Joyce, JA Bushnell, JW Walshe and JB Morton
Of 105 patients admitted to a surgical ward with acute abdominal pain, 18
were considered to be without evidence of any organic aetiology for this
symptom. These 'non-organic' patients were almost all female and differed
from the 'organic' patients in state anxiety and in the illness behaviour
questionnaire scales of psychological versus somatic perception, denial and
affective disturbance. The two groups of patients could be differentiated
on the basis of scores derived from the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire,
and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.