ИСТИНА

One of the key methodological principles used in Russian clinical psychology (the Vygotsky - Luria Scientific School) of syndromic analysis of mental phenomena, can also be successfully applied to Psychosomatic Medicine. Aims: to identify a psychosomatic syndrome in patients with MVP. Where tested 290 patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP) and 73 healthy individuals. Methods: techniques for a qualitative and statistical data analysis of longitudinal (15 years) clinical-psychological study. We explored our patients’ individual personality profiles, simulated various stress loads on each, and examined the correlation between our patients’ mental condition when stress is simulated and to what degree the manifestation of clinical symptoms and signs affected them. Results. The patients with MVP begin to experience emotional stress, whereas the healthy testees developed operational stresses. The former also tended to choose less effective coping behavior strategies than the later. Factor analysis of the output data suggested that the patients’ psychological reactions and clinical characteristics form a certain pattern, which can be described as a psychosomatic syndrome within a complex hierarchical structure. This syndrome is based on their specific motivational spheres dominated by failure avoidance behaviors and a frustrated need to maintain self-esteem, as well as specificities to their stress-induced mental conditions.