The Impact of Level of Personality Organization and Somatization on Psychological Distress, Worrying, and Coping among Patients with Sleep Disorders

The Impact of Level of Personality Organization and Somatization on Psychological Distress, Worrying, and Coping among Patients with Sleep Disorders

Study background: Sleep disorders have a significant impact on daily functioning and show a high degree of overlap with mental disorders and other kinds of mental distress, such as impaired coping and worrying. More insight into factors influencing mental distress in patients with sleep disorders is needed. Methods: Two transdiagnostic factors, i.e., level of personality organization and affect regulation through somatization, and their impact on psychological distress, worrying, and coping was examined among 259 patients with sleep disorders. Results: Patients with the most severe structural personality pathology, i.e., with psychotic personality organization, showed the highest levels of symptoms and passive coping in comparison with patients with borderline and with neurotic personality organization. However, sleep-disordered patients with psychotic personality organization who use somatization as affect regulation reported less psychological distress and less passive coping relative to psychotic personality organization patients without this affect regulation mechanism.