Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
J Psychosom Res. 2010 Jan;68(1):37-45. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2009.06.009.
Some people report symptoms that they associate with electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure. These symptoms may be related to specific EMF sources or to electrical equipment in general (perceived electromagnetic hypersensitivity, EHS). Research and clinical observations suggest a difference between mobile phone (MP)-related symptoms and EHS with respect to symptom prevalence, psychological factors, and health prognosis. This study assessed prevalence of EMF-related and EMF-nonrelated symptoms, anxiety, depression, somatization, exhaustion, and stress in people with MP-related symptoms or EHS versus a population-based sample and a control sample without EMF-related symptoms.
Forty-five participants with MP-related symptoms and 71 with EHS were compared with a population-based sample (n=106) and a control group (n=63) using self-report questionnaires.
The EHS group reported more symptoms than the MP group, both EMF-related and EMF-nonrelated. The MP group reported a high prevalence of somatosensory symptoms, whereas the EHS group reported more neurasthenic symptoms. As to self-reported personality traits and stress, the case groups differed only on somatization and listlessness in a direct comparison. In comparison with the reference groups, the MP group showed increased levels of exhaustion and depression but not of anxiety, somatization, and stress; the EHS group showed increased levels for all of the conditions except for stress.
The findings support the idea of a difference between people with symptoms related to specific EMF sources and people with general EHS with respect to symptoms and anxiety, depression, somatization, exhaustion, and stress. The differences are likely to be important in the management of patients.
有些人报告了与电磁场（EMF）暴露相关的症状。这些症状可能与特定的 EMF 源有关，也可能与一般的电气设备有关（感知电磁超敏反应，EHS）。研究和临床观察表明，手机（MP）相关症状和 EHS 之间在症状流行率、心理因素和健康预后方面存在差异。本研究评估了与 EMF 相关和与 EMF 无关的症状、焦虑、抑郁、躯体化、疲惫和压力在与 MP 相关的症状或 EHS 的人群与基于人群的样本和无 EMF 相关症状的对照组之间的发生率。
使用自我报告问卷，将 45 名与 MP 相关的症状患者和 71 名 EHS 患者与基于人群的样本（n=106）和对照组（n=63）进行比较。
EHS 组报告的症状比 MP 组多，包括与 EMF 相关和不相关的症状。MP 组报告了较高的躯体感觉症状发生率，而 EHS 组报告了较多的神经衰弱症状。至于自我报告的个性特征和压力，仅在直接比较时，病例组在躯体化和倦怠方面存在差异。与参考组相比，MP 组表现出更高的疲惫和抑郁水平，但焦虑、躯体化和压力水平没有增加；EHS 组除了压力之外，所有条件的水平都有所增加。
这些发现支持这样一种观点，即与特定 EMF 源相关的症状患者和普遍的 EHS 患者在症状和焦虑、抑郁、躯体化、疲惫和压力方面存在差异。这些差异在患者的管理中可能很重要。
