Table 1 Psychological parameters investigated in the SCL-90-R questionnaire [10]

Somatization (SOM)

Reflects distress arising from perceptions of bodily dysfunction

Obsessive compulsive (O-C)

Focuses on thoughts, impulses, and actions that are experienced as unremitting and irresistible and of an ego-alien or unwanted nature

Interpersonal sensitivity (I-S)

Feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, particularly in comparison with other people

Depression (DEP)

Reflects a representative range of the manifestations of clinical depression. Symptoms of dysphoric mood and affect are represented as are signs of withdrawal of life interest, lack of motivation, and loss of vital energy

Hostility (HOS)

Reflects thoughts, feelings, or actions that are characteristic of a negative affected state of anger.

Anxiety (ANX)

General signs of anxiety such as nervousness, tension and trembling as well as panic attacks and feeling of terror, apprehension and dread

Phobic Anxiety (PHOB)

Persistent fear response to a specific person, place, object or situation that is irrational and disproportionate to the stimulus and leads to avoidance or escape behavior

Paranoid Ideation (PAR)

Represents paranoid behavior fundamentally as disordered mode of thinking

Psychoticism (PSY)

Represents the construct as a continuous dimensionand reflects reflect a graduated continuum from mild social alienation to first-rank symptoms of psychosis

Global Severity Index (GSI)

The average rating given to the 90 items of psychological symptoms and represents the overall psychological distress level

Positive Symptom Distress Index (PSDI)

The average rating given to those symptoms that are self-reported (ie. not rated ‘0’) and represents the intensity of symptoms

Positive Symptom Total (PST)

Measures the number of self-reported symptoms that were rated higher than ‘0’