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

Abstract

Overview

The study investigates the origins of idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEIs) and tests three psychological approaches to understanding their development. These include the general psychopathology model, the attribution model, and the nocebo model.

Findings

• The study uses cross-lagged panel models with latent variables based on data collected twice, six years apart, from a large near-representative community sample.
• Highlights include integrating theories of IEIs, testing theories in a longitudinal study of 1837 participants, noting correlations without causal associations, and emphasizing the commonality among different IEIs.
• The three models tested did not predict changes in IEIs as initially hypothesized.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that despite the stability of IEIs, such as chemical intolerance, noise sensitivity, and electromagnetic hypersensitivity, there is no evidence supporting the popular psychological theories for their development based on the current longitudinal sample. The connection between somatic symptoms and modern health worries with IEIs was notable but did not lead to increases in IEIs over time.