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Psychophysiological Features of Somatosensory Disorders in Victims of the Chernobyl Accident

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Abstract

Participants of the Chernobyl clean-up (n = 145) teams exposed to radiation doses from 0.05 to 3.5 Gy who had for the first time complained of pathologic somatosensory sensations (ostealgic syndrome), 20 healthy subjects, and 50 veterans of the war in Afghanistan with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were examined by a neuropsychiatrist and presented with the MMPI test. Somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) were recorded. Paresthesia and cenesthopathy were characteristic of the participants of the Chernobyl clean-up. Sensation disorders of the cerebral type, kinesthetic illusions, cenesthopathic hypochondriac disorders, and paroxysmal psychosensory states predominated in this group of subjects. They differed significantly from the veterans with PTSD in markedly increased scores on MMPI scales (hypochondriasis, schizophrenia, pure hypochondriasis, pure schizophrenia, emotional exclusion, and perception oddity), which closely correlated with clinical somatosensory symptoms. In clean-up workers, somatosensory disorders were significantly associated with hypochondriac and schizophrenic-like symptoms. The latencies (LPs) of main SSEP components—N 20, P 25, N 140, P 300, and N 400—were increased and their amplitudes decreased in subjects exposed to radiation. Their SSEPs had significant topographical deviations in the left temporoparietal area: the contralateral LPs were increased, whereas the contralateral amplitudes of the thalamocortical N 20 component and the cortical P 25 component were decreased as compared to normal values. Somatosensory disorders and hypochondriac and schizophrenic symptoms were significantly correlated with changes in the SSEPs. The decrease in the N 20 amplitude and increase in the P 25 latency in the left temporoparietal area were dose-dependent. The results suggest cerebral rather than peripheral origin of ostealgic syndrome and other somatosensory disorders in the participants of the Chernobyl clean-up. These disorders are associated with radiation-induced dysfunction of the corticolimbic structures of the left—dominant—hemisphere. It is suggested that somatosensory disorders in patients exposed to low doses of radiation can be considered as manifestations of chronic fatigue syndrome /fibromyalgia, whereas schizoform organic brain lesions manifest themselves after exposure to a radiation dose of 0.3–0.5 Gy.

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  1. Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. WHO Collaborating Center, Center for Radiation Medicine, Kiev, Ukraine

    K. N. Loganovsky

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Loganovsky, K.N. Psychophysiological Features of Somatosensory Disorders in Victims of the Chernobyl Accident. Human Physiology 29, 110–117 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022069022557

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