Institute for Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Sweden.
Environ Res. 2022 Mar;204(Pt A):111774. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111774. Epub 2021 Sep 8.
The origin of idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEIs) is an open question. According to the psychological approaches, various top-down factors play a dominant role in the development of IEIs. The general psychopathology model assumes a propensity towards mental ill-health (negative affectivity) increases the probability of developing IEIs. The attribution model emphasizes the importance of mistaken attribution of experienced somatic symptoms; thus, more symptoms should lead to more IEIs. Finally, the nocebo model highlights the role of expectations in the development of IEIs. In this case, worries about the harmful effects of environmental factors are assumed to evoke IEIs. We estimated cross-lagged panel models with latent variables based on longitudinal data obtained at two time points (six years apart) from a large near-representative community sample to test the hypothesized associations. Indicators of chemical intolerance, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, and sound sensitivity fit well under a common latent factor of IEIs. This factor, in turn, showed considerable temporal stability. However, whereas a positive association was found between IEIs and increased somatic symptoms and modern health worries six years later, the changes therein could not be predicted as hypothesized by the three psychological models. We discuss the implications of these results, as well as methodological aspects in the measurement and prediction of change in IEIs.
特发性环境敏感（IEI）的起源仍是一个悬而未决的问题。根据心理学方法，各种自上而下的因素在 IEI 的发展中起着主导作用。一般精神病理学模型假设精神健康不良（负性情感）的倾向会增加 IEI 的发病概率。归因模型强调了对经验躯体症状错误归因的重要性；因此，更多的症状应该导致更多的 IEI。最后，反安慰剂模型强调了期望在 IEI 发展中的作用。在这种情况下，对环境因素有害影响的担忧被认为会引发 IEI。我们根据一项大型准代表性社区样本在两个时间点（相隔六年）获得的纵向数据，使用潜在变量的交叉滞后面板模型来测试假设的关联。化学不耐受、电磁超敏反应和声音敏感的指标很好地符合 IEI 的共同潜在因素。该因素反过来具有相当大的时间稳定性。然而，尽管在六年后发现 IEI 与增加的躯体症状和现代健康担忧之间存在正相关，但这些变化不能如三个心理学模型所假设的那样进行预测。我们讨论了这些结果的意义，以及在 IEI 的测量和变化预测中的方法学方面。
