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The Prevalence and Predictors of Psychosomatic Symptoms and Conditions Among Police Officers

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Psychosomatic Medicine

Abstract

The present report examines the epidemiology of psychosomatic disorders among a sample of police officers and examines those variables believed to be significant predictors of psychosomatic illness. A psychosomatic disorder, as defined by Davison and Neale (1978), is a “disorder characterized by physical symptoms, which may involve actual tissue damage, usually in one organ system, produced in part by continued mobilization of the autonomic nervous system under stress” (p. 598). Psychosomatic disorders for present purposes include the following symptoms and conditions: headaches, indigestion, constipation, nervous stomach, stomach aches, diarrhea, high blood pressure, asthma, ulcers, colitis, and problems in weight control.

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© 1983 Plenum Press, New York

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Vulcano, B.A., Barnes, G.E., Breen, L.J. (1983). The Prevalence and Predictors of Psychosomatic Symptoms and Conditions Among Police Officers. In: Krakowski, A.J., Kimball, C.P. (eds) Psychosomatic Medicine. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4496-4_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4496-4_27

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-4498-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-4496-4

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