Somatic symptom disorder and the role of epistemic trust, personality functioning and child abuse: Results from a population-based representative German sample

Abstract

Background: A growing body of evidence explored symptom burden of somatic symptom disorder (SSD) and its complex etiology involving psychosocial aspects. Child abuse has been linked to numerous psychopathologies including somatic symptoms as well as impaired personality functioning and disruptions in epistemic trust. This work aims to investigate personality functioning and epistemic trust in the association between child abuse and somatic symptom burden. Methods: We conducted structural equation modelling (SEM) using representative data of the German population (N = 2436). Personality functioning (OPD-SQS) was applied as a mediator between retrospectively recalled child abuse (ICAST-R) and somatic symptom burden (SSS-8, SSD-12, 6 month time criterion), while epistemic trust was added as a predictor of personality functioning. Results: 6.8 % (n = 166) of participants self-reported SSD. Prevalence of child abuse (53.6 % vs. 31.7 %; χ2 = 33.44, p < .001) was significantly higher among those with SSD. Child abuse was significantly associated with somatic symptom burden (criterion A: β = 0.23, 95 %-CI: 0.19–0.27, p < .001; criterion B (β = 0.24, 95 %-CI: 0.20–0.28, p < .001) and explained 6 % and 5 % of its variance respectively. Adding personality functioning as a mediator increased the explained variance to 28 % for both somatic symptom burden criterion A and B. Including epistemic trust further increased the explained variance of personality functioning (from 15 to 36 %). Limitations: All assessments and results are based on self-report and cross-sectional data. Conclusions: Impairments in personality functioning and disruptions in epistemic trust might play an important role in experiencing symptoms of SSD. Both domains thus present new avenues for treatment improvement and further research in patients with SSD.