It is well known that somatic complaints without organic findings are often related to anxiety. In this address to the 60-years old Dutch Psychoanalytical Society, the author describes the syndromes of acute and chronic hyperventilation in adult clients of a psychiatric out-patients department. These syndromes are related to anxiety; they are often triggered off in a pathological process of mourning, some hours to some years after the loss of a beloved one or the loss of an object strongly identified with.
The concept of early psychotrauma is discussed. During the 1940-1945 period in Holland there existed circumstances of war that could be held responsible for psycho-traumatic experiences in young children. A hypothesis was formulated that a higher incidence of chronic hyperventilation was to be expected in the 77 clients bom during the war, than in the 169 clients born in the five years before and atfer the war. This hypotheses could be confirmed: X2 = 14.85. p < 0,001.
Scrutinizing a possible sex-difference, it came out that the hypothesis does not hold in the 44 male clients born during the war compared to the 89 male clients bom in the five years before and after the war. (X2 = 2.03; .10 < p < .25.) The hypothesis was confirmed in the 33 female clients born during the war compared to the 80 female clients bom in the five years before and after the war. (X2 = 16.61; p < 0,001.) The possible influence of a recent delivery is pointed at.
So it could be proved that circumstances of war in infancy do influence patterns of anxiety, resulting in chronic hyperventilation in adult females.