Hostility Conflict and Reporting of Side Effects by Psychiatric Outpatients

The Irritability, Indirect Hostility, Verbal Hostility, and Resentment scales from the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, along with a newly constructed scale intended as a self-report measure of Hostility Conflict, were administered to 84 non-psychotic, primarily anxious psychiatric outpatients receiving an active anxiolytic and participating in one of several 4-wk. double-blind drug trials. Patients who complained of one or more side effects after 2 wk. of treatment were classified as side reactors; the remaining patients, as non-side reactors. Compared to non-side reactors, the side reactors obtained higher hostility conflict scores and lower scores on the Irritability and Indirect Hostility scales. Also, the relationship between side effect status and hostility conflict was stronger in those patients who obtained higher scores on the Irritability, Indirect Hostility, and Verbal Hostility scales and among patients obtaining lower scores on the Resentment scale. Findings were regarded as providing partial replication of and further verification of earlier results.