Differences in life attitudes between general population and hospitalized psychosomatic patients: a comparative cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

To compare the extent to which value-based life attitudes measured by means of the Life Attitude Profile (LAP-R) could differ between the general population and people suffering from mental disorders hospitalized in a psychosomatic ward. Cross-sectional comparative study between a sample of general population (n = 409) and a sample of unselected patients (n = 147) at admission in a psychosomatic ward. Comparisons were carried out by means of Cronbach’s alpha, correlation matrix, t-tests, robust multivariate linear regression models (MLRM), and using propensity scores. The internal consistency of LAP-R is good (alpha = 0.90). Divergent validity with BFI dimensions is widely given. In MLRM general population scored higher for the indexes ‘personal meaning’ and ‘existential transcendence’, whereas psychosomatic patients for the dimensions ‘responsibleness’, ‘death acceptance’, ‘goal seeking’ and especially ‘existential vacuum’. Sex, partnership and schooling display few associations. Neuroticism is negatively and agreeableness positively associated with life attitudes considered as protective. Norm values and differences were stratified by age ranges. This study demonstrates that basic human attitudes like personal transcendence, personal meaning, having a biographically supported mission in life, and belief in a reason for existence are so fundamental for individuals that they are to some degree given independently of having a mental disorder or not. Neuroticism is a risk trait and agreeableness a protective trait facing life attitudes. The findings of this study indicate that people suffering from mental disorders treated in a specialized psychosomatic unit in a general hospital have important value-based resources and simultaneously higher levels of existential vacuum that have to be considered in treatment planning but should also be embedded in a therapeutic alliance. The existential vacuum deserves special consideration in the treatment of patients, especially facing risk of suicide.

KEYWORDS:

• Life attitudes
• LAP-R
• existential vacuum
• psychosomatics
• personality

Compliance with Ethical Standards

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethics Committee of the University of Ulm (Germany) and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Ulm (Germany), for both healthy participants (registration no. 02/19) and psychosomatic patients (registration no. 03/18).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Informed consent

Written informed consent was obtained from all individual adult participants included in the study.

Author contributions

JVS: conceptualization, design, statistics, draft of manuscript; JB and SK: data collection general population; HK: data collection inpatient psychosomatics. All authors revised and approved the manuscript.

Ethical approval

Ethics committee, University of Ulm. Registration no. 03/18 and 02/19.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.