Psychosomatic aspects of cyclothymia

Introduction: The psychosomatic characteristics of cyclothymic disorder are scarcely investigated in the literature (Van Meter et al, 2012). The aim of this study is to integrate the diagnostic taxonomy with psychosomatic assessment in cyclothymic patients. Methods: 62 patients with a diagnosis of cyclothymia (DSM-IV-TR) in absence of comorbidities with other mood disorders, borderline personality disorder, and substance abuse and 62 controls matched for socio-demographic variables were assessed with the structured interview based on the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR). Results: Cyclothymic patients present a significantly greater prevalence of DCPR syndromes compared to controls (78.5% vs 17.7%; p<0.001). The most common DCPR syndromes in the patient group were demoralization (n=15; 31.9%), irritable mood (n=9; 19.1%), health anxiety (n=6, 12.8%) and alexithymia (n=5, 10.6%), but only demoralization resulted significantly more prevalent in the cyclothymic group compared to controls (p=0.001). Discussion/Conclusions: The assessment of psychosomatic symptomatology indicates that the presence of demoralization in cyclothymia may represent subthreshold symptomatology of clinical significance in both treatment response and relapse prevention.