Associations of somatic symptom attribution in Turkish patients with major depression

Abstract

Background: There are differences across ethno-cultural groups in the degree of somatization among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Studies showed that the attribution style of somatic symptoms is an important predictor of health outcome in depressed patients. Aims: The aims of this study were to investigate associations of psychologizing, normalizing and somatizing attribution styles as measured by the Symptom Interpretation Questionnaire (SIQ) in Turkish patients with MDD. Methods: Ninety patients who were diagnosed with a major depressive episode using a semi-structured interview were administered the SIQ to assess attribution styles, each of which was regressed on age, gender, educational level, depressive symptom severity, tendency for somatosensory amplification, current somatic symptoms and alexithymia. Results: Scores on somatizing, psychologizing and normalizing attribution subscales of the SIQ were strongly correlated with each other. Somatosensory amplification and alexithymia were independent correlates of somatizing attributions. Higher levels of psychologizing and normalizing attributions were both related to more severe symptoms of depression and to somatosensory amplification. Conclusions: These results suggested that patients with higher levels of depressive symptoms were more likely to engage in a greater diversity of attribution styles as measured by the SIQ in our sample. Independent correlates of somatic symptom attribution in patients with MDD were found to be different from Western countries, suggestive of disparate cultural characteristics and help-seeking pathways and behaviour in Turkey.

• Cultural characteristics
• Depression
• Somatization
• Somatic symptom attribution

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Laurence Kirmayer and Brett Thombs (Division of Social & Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada) for their valuable contributions and constructive comments on earlier drafts of the paper.

Declaration of interest: This study was supported by a research grant by TUBITAK (the scientific and technical research council of Turkey) to the first author (Dr. Okan Taycan). The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.