Hypocholesterolemia and neurotic symptoms

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: An association between low serum cholesterol concentrations and depressive symtoms has ever been found in several studies. The objective of this study is to evaluate neurotic symptoms in hypocholesterolemia. METHODS: In the course of two months (from June to August, 1998), 81 subjects were selected among the people who screened in adult disease survey of one university hospital. As the control group, 80 subjects were selected from a healthy population. In the study population, we excluded people who had medical history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, ischemic heart disease, chronic liver disease and history of any medication to lipid metabolism and other psychotic disease history. Neurotic symptoms were measured by Symptom Checklist for Minor Psychiatric Disorders (SCL-MPD) questionnaire. RESULTS: There was no difference between the distribution of age and sex in the hypocholesterolemia groups. As the level of the education and kind of employment, no significant difference between two groups. Hypocholesterolemia groups scored significantly higher than conrol group in some questionnaire of SCL-MPD. The results of depression scale (p<0.01) and anxiety, hypochondriasis scale (p<0.05) were significant. The men of hypocholesterolemia groups have significant relation to hypochondriasis scale (p<0.001) and the women to anxiety scale (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Though in some scale of neurotic symptoms, the association between hypocholesterolemia and neurotic symptoms was found in our study. There need to be a further study on the correlation of hypocholesterolemia and neurotic symptoms.