50 patients with functional abdominal complaints were tested by means of Beck’s depression scale, MMPI, MMPI-Foulds. Two control groups were used: 24 outpatients from the department of surgery (SCo), 45 patients with functional heart complaints (HCo). The abdominal group was subdivided into 2 subgroups:-patients with upper abdominal complaints (UAb) and patients with lower abdominal complaints (LAb). Highly significant results (ρ≤0.001) were achieved when comparing MMPI and Beck rank orders of the 4 groups. The highest rank orders/lowest ones exhibited the groups HCo, UAb/SCo resp. This was the case for the scales Hs, D, Hy, Pt, Sc and for Beck’s depression scale. Significantly higher rank orders were found for UAb in contrast to LAb on the scales MMPI -D, -Si (only for females), -Foulds Critiscism of others (here LAb was even lower than SCo!), -Foulds General Hostility. Thus results of MMPI and Beck’s depression scale show: patients with functional abdominal complaints who visit a specialized university hospital differ from a normal control group significantly. They are similar to a group of patients with functional heart complaints of neurotic origin. Patients with lower abdominal complaints exhibit remarkably little manifest aggression (in the test!), even less than normal. The same seems to hold true for manifest de
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