Symptoms of neuroses: profile patterns and factor structure of clinic attenders with non-psychotic functional psychiatric disorders.

Consecutively referred out-patients (n = 102) with non-psychotic functional psychiatric disorders were examined. Nine syndrome scores (panic attack, phobic anxiety, generalized anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, dissociative, conversion, somatoform, depersonalization, and depressive) showed patterns corresponding to ICD-10 diagnoses. However, some also showed moderate correlations between each other. Factor analysis revealed that the nine syndrome scores could be accounted for by three factors-anxiety and somatic, depression and obsessive-compulsive, and hysterical. These findings cast doubt on the nosological specificity of the recent categorization of neurotic disorders. Furthermore, the symptom constellations identified in this study may be culture-bound.