A Sound Mind in a Sound Body: To What Extent Do They Go Together before and after Psychotherapy?

Abstract

As in the old adage, we found that a sound mind and a sound body were associated – the frequency of psychological symptoms was highly correlated with the frequency of physical symptoms for seventy-three patients on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist both before and after psychotherapy. The physical and psychological sets of items were each internally consistent and moderately separable from each other. Each set showed some stability over time. The physical symptoms were not associated with current stress, but with worries about physical health. The worries about physical health did not appear to reflect just needless worry since the physical health items correlated with the physicians' physical examinations items (in another sample). Both sets of items were significantly reduced during psychotherapy although the psychological set more so than the physical set. The extent of the reduction in the physical and psychological sets was correlated; the most frequently reduced physical symptoms were those that were initially most common. Reduction in psychological symptoms was moderately correlated with improvement in psychotherapy; for the physical symptoms, the correlation was also significant, but reduced.