Humiliation and Injustice: Most Frequent and Most Hurting Stressors in Psychosomatic Patients

Background: Injustice and humiliation are negative life events which can raise strong emotions, including shame, feelings of inferiority and helplessness, embitterment, anger, vindictive feelings and even aggressive rumination and acting out. This can severely impair not only the affected person but also her or his environment. Aim of this study was to investigate the frequency and impact of humiliation and injustice in psychiatric- psychosomatic patients. Methods: In a semi-structured interview, which followed the outlines of the WHO International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF), 102 inpatients from a department of behavioural medicine were asked about burdens in life. Additionally, patients filled in the “ICD-10 Symptom Rating”, the “ICF AT 50-Psych”, the “Beck Depression Inventory” and the “HEALTH-49”. Results: The experience of humiliation was rated as strong or very strong by 70.6% of the patients, being the most frequent burden, followed by persistent stress (59.9%), and injustice (56.8%). Comparisons between patients who complained about injustice alone, humiliation alone, injustice and humiliation combined, and neither injustice or humiliation show that experiences of humiliation and injustice similarly and significantly impair psychological well-being. Conclusion: Humiliation and injustice are most frequent and impairing negative life events in psychiatricpsychosomatic patients. They need proper recognition and treatment.