• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.101-108
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• 1993

A case of a 38 year-old woman with histrionic personality who had chronic epigastric pain, dyspepsia and alternating bowel habit for more than 10 years was presented in detail on its course of two times of admission and follow-up. The diagnosis was thought as psychophy-siological disorder or gastrointestinal motility disorder of undefined etiology rather than hypo-chondriasis or Briquet's syndrome. She was characterized by sustained illness behavior and combined several physical illnesses. i.e. tuberculosis. anemia and hepatic stone. These physical diseases led to a blurring of psychological and physical boundaries regarding symptom formation. The points on consultation from medical part to psychiatric department were discussed and the supposed causal mechanisms in non-organic functional gastrointestinal disturbances were also reviewed. Physical and psychological modalities for the treatment and the abnormal illness behavior were mainly emphasized in this case.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.147-154
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• 1998

Objective : This study was designed to find the characteristics of MMPI that could influence the outcome of cognitive behavioral therapy(CBT) for panic disorder. Methods : 34 patients who met DSM-IV criteria for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia had completed 11 weekly sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy. All the patients were assessed with MMPI before the initiation of treatment. Five self-report measures including Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory(STAI), Agoraphobic Cognition Questionnarie(ACQ), Body Sensation Questionnaire(BSQ), and Daily Anxiety Selfrating (0 - 8 scales) were also assessed as a pre- and post-treatment assessment. After the completion of treatment, patients were classified by the High End-State(HES) functioning group and the Low End-State(LES) functioning group for the data analysis. Results : 1) The LES group showed significantly higher scores in Hypochondriasis Scale(HS), Depression Scale(D), Hysterical Scale(Hy), Obsessive Scale(Pt), Schizophrenia Scale(Sc) and Validity Scale(F) of MMPI than the HES group. However, these differences gave impressions that the LES group had more severe symptoms rather than that they could be the factors influencing the outcome of CBT. 2) Though, the severity of symptoms of the LES group in the 5 measures of pre-assessment was basically higher than that of the HES group. The fact that both group showed the similar improvement between pre- and post-assessment supported the above interpretation. Conclusion : In regarding the above results, MMPI was not a proper tool that could provide the factors influencing the outcome of CBT. In the future study, the authors need to use a different tool that can find the personality characteristics more directly.