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Multimethod Assessment of Mentalizing and its relations with Somatic Symptoms in Adolescents with Primary Headache

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

F. Bizzi ,
S. Charpentier Mora ,
M. Tironi ,
A. Riva  and
R. Nacinovich
F. Bizzi
Affiliation:
University of Genoa, Department Of Educational Sciences (disfor), Genoa, Italy
S. Charpentier Mora
Affiliation:
University of Genoa, Department Of Educational Sciences (disfor), Genoa, Italy
M. Tironi*
Affiliation:
University of Genoa, Department Of Educational Sciences (disfor), Genoa, Italy
A. Riva
Affiliation:
San Gerardo Hospital, Child Neuropsychiatry Clinic, Monza, Italy
R. Nacinovich
Affiliation:
San Gerardo Hospital, Child Neuropsychiatry Clinic, Monza, Italy
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Difficulties in mentalizing (i.e., the ability to reflect on self and others’ internal mental states, operationalized as reflective functioning [RF]; Fonagy et al., 2012) have been associated with psychological symptoms (Luyten et al., 2020), including somatic symptoms (Bizzi et al., 2019). Therefore, the assessment of its dimensions may be clinically relevant for young patients with somatic symptoms, as with Primary Headache (PH), representing one of the most common somatic complaints in children and adolescents.

Objectives

This study aimed to assess RF with a multi-method approach, exploring its relation with somatic symptoms.

Methods

48 adolescents diagnosed with PH (Mage=14.83, SD=2.81; 67% females) were recruited from an Italian Child Neuropsychiatry Clinic. RF was measured both through the Child and Adolescent Reflective Functioning (CRFS) applied to the Child Attachment Interview transcripts and the self-report Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ), while the Children’s Somatization Inventory (CSI-24) was used to measure the perceived severity of somatic symptoms.

Results

Different relations with somatic symptoms depended on the method used to evaluate RF: no significant correlations were found with the CRFS subscales (General, Other, Self), while a negative significant correlation was found with the RFQ subscale Certainty about mental states (RFQ_C) (r=-.46, p=.016). All subscales of CRFS were negatively correlated with RFQ_C (p=.05), but not with the other RFQ subscale (Uncertainty about mental states; RFQ_U).

Conclusions

This suggests that two measures may lead to different dimensions of the same construct, thus a multi-method assessment of RF would be advisable in clinical practice.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

mentalizingPrimary HeadacheAdolescentssomatic symptoms
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S442
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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