Psychological models of development of idiopathic environmental intolerances: Evidence from longitudinal population-based data

Abstract

Overview

The origin of idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEIs) and the role of psychological factors in their development is explored in this study.

Findings

• The study integrated various psychological theories including the general psychopathology model, the attribution model, and the nocebo model to understand the development of IEIs.
• Longitudinal analysis was performed using cross-lagged panel models with latent variables on data collected over six years from a large, near-representative sample.
• Results indicated a strong correlation across various forms of IEIs, such as chemical intolerance, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, and sound sensitivity under a common latent factor which demonstrated substantial temporal stability.
• The study found significant correlations between IEIs and an increase in somatic symptoms and modern health worries after six years, although the predicted changes by psychological models were not fully aligned with these findings.

Conclusion

The study reveals that while some correlations exist between IEIs and psychological and somatic indicators, the existing psychological models do not thoroughly predict changes in IEIs. Further attention is required in examining the broader implications of the models used to understand IEIs.