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BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2019

Open Access 01-12-2019 | Affective Disorder | Research article

Explanation of somatic symptoms by mental health and personality traits: application of Bayesian regularized quantile regression in a large population study

Authors: Shayan Mostafaei, Kourosh Kabir, Anoshirvan Kazemnejad, Awat Feizi, Marjan Mansourian, Ammar Hassanzadeh Keshteli, Hamid Afshar, Saeed Masoud Arzaghi, Saeid Rasekhi Dehkordi, Peyman Adibi, Fataneh Ghadirian

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2019

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Abstract

Background

Somatic syndrome is one of the remarkably prevalent issues in primary health care and subspecialty settings. We aimed to elucidate multidimensional associations between somatic symptoms with major mental problems and personality traits in the framework of the quantile regression model with a Bayesian approach.

Methods

A total of 4763 employees at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services in Isfahan province, Iran, filled out four validated questionnaires including Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), NEO Questionnaire, General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and PHQ-15 for somatic symptom severity. In addition, Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders (FGIDs) were determined using Rome IV criteria. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Bayesian regularized quantile regression with adaptive LASSO penalization were applied for reduced dimension of somatic symptoms and variable selection and parameter estimation, respectively.

Results

The 25 major somatic symptoms were grouped into four factors including general, upper gastrointestinal, lower gastrointestinal and respiratory by EFA. Stress, depression, and anxiety had significant effects on all of the four extracted factors. The effect of anxiety in each four extracted factors was more than stress and depression. Neuroticism and agreeableness had significant effects on all of the four extracted factors, generally (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Given the high prevalence of somatic symptoms and psychosomatic complaints in correlation with the diverse range of mental co-morbidities, developing more detailed diagnostic tools and methods is crucial; nonetheless, it seems that providing better interdisciplinary approaches in general medical practice is groundwork.
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Metadata
Title
Explanation of somatic symptoms by mental health and personality traits: application of Bayesian regularized quantile regression in a large population study
Authors
Shayan Mostafaei
Kourosh Kabir
Anoshirvan Kazemnejad
Awat Feizi
Marjan Mansourian
Ammar Hassanzadeh Keshteli
Hamid Afshar
Saeed Masoud Arzaghi
Saeid Rasekhi Dehkordi
Peyman Adibi
Fataneh Ghadirian
Publication date
01-12-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2189-1

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