Life events and neurocirculatory asthenia. A controlled study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the occurrence of stressful life events in the year before the onset of neurocirculatory asthenia. Case-control retrospective study. A university medical outpatient clinic. A consecutive series of 50 patients with neurocirculatory asthenia and a control group of 50 healthy subjects, matched for sociodemographic variables, were studied. Paykel's Interview for Recent Life Events (a semistructured research interview covering 64 life events) was administered to patients and controls. Patients with neurocirculatory asthenia reported significantly more stressful life events than the control group (P < 0.05) and had significantly more of the following: exits (P < 0.05), undesirable (P < 0.05) and uncontrolled (P < 0.01) events. More events that had an objective negative impact (P < 0.001) and more independent events (P = 0.07) were also reported. Ratings of impact and independence were carried out by a blind rater who was unaware whether the event had occurred in patients or controls. The results are suggestive of a strong relationship between stressful life events and neurocirculatory asthenia. This is in agreement with a multifactorial model of pathogenesis in neurocirculatory asthenia and with current understanding of the extensive links of behavioral responses to stress with neurophysiological and biochemical processes.