Abstract
The unidentified clinical syndrome has been characterized with vague or shifted autonomic disturbances without any organic findings. The present study was conducted in order to chasaify this syndrome according to clinical features, with respect to which complaint was more closely related to others. The subjects consisted of 60 males and 149 females, with ages ranging from 20 to 79. All demonstrated lasting complaints for two months or more and did not show any overt neurotic behavior. Twelve groups were provided of assorted ages and sex, and the frequency of 30 complaints in each group was then computed. Principal component analysis was applied to the twelve original groups as variables for the 30 complaints. Three components were extracted; the first component, which accounted for 57% of the total variance, presented a common denominator, second and third components were clearly dominated by age and sex factors respectively. According to the component scores computed from components 2 and 3. all complaints were clustered on a two-dimensional space. Results were as follows; older males revealed more depressive complaints such as insomnia, diarrhea, constipation etc., whereas younger males suffered from general fatigue and asthenopia which was suspected to be a underlying asthenic reaction. On the other hand, in females, an age-dependent change was not observed. They were more closely related to an anxiety reaction involving dygnea and dizziness. It can be considered that the unidentified clinical sydrome may be classified into three syndrome clusters and that there are different underlying mechanisms for each one.
