Elmar Brähler

University of Leipzig · Abteilung für Medizinische Psychologie und medizinische Soziologie

The study determines how burden and patterns of somatic symptom reporting developed over almost four decades in the general German population. Additionally, we studied how socio-demographic factors affected the degree of somatic symptoms. Population-based samples representative for West Germany between 18 and 60 years of age were analyzed comparing...

Keywords: Sleep problems; Assessment; Questionnaire; Anxiety; Depression; Somatic symptom load. Objective: As sleep disorders have become a major concern in public health, there is strong need for a brief and sound measure for sleep problems. The purposes of the study were to 1) evaluate factor structure and measurement invariance, 2) validate the...

We estimate (1) sexual activity and sexual desire in women living with and without a partner across the age range in Germany and (2) changes over 11 years. A representative survey of 345 (response rate: 65%) women between 18 and 99 years from 2016 was compared to a survey of 1314 women age 18–91 from 2005 (response rate: 53%). Sexual activity was a...

Background: Multiple studies have shown a link between cumulative adverse experiences in childhood and a wide variety of psychosocial problems in later life. There have not been any pertinent representative studies of the German population until now. The goal of this study is to determine the frequency of adverse childhood experiences (ACE), the e...

Background Tattooing has become very popular in recent years. In this context, socio-demographic information and health orientation is important. Objectives The objective of this study was to evaluate the development of the prevalence of tattoos over the last thirteen years and the social and economic background of people with tattoos. Three natio...

Previous studies on self-rated health and mortality have usually not differentiated between physical and mental health, respectively have not considered physical diseases. This study aims to determine self-rated physical and mental health from middle to old age, examine associations with mortality adjusted for objective risk factors and assess effe...

Zusammenfassung Ziel der Studie Es wird untersucht, ob es im Zuge der Coronapandemie zu einer Erhöhung der psychischen Belastung in einer deutschen Normalbevölkerungsstichprobe Erwachsener aus Sachsen kommt. Methodik 2017/2018 und 2022 wurden je N=289 Teilnehmer:innen (54,7% weiblich) der Sächsischen Längsschnittstudie mittels Fragebögen (PHQ-4, SS...

Introduction Stigma is an individual and societal process based on attitudes and power and relates to both spatial disparities and social distinction. In this study, we examined differences in desire for social distance toward people with mental illness within a city using social and spatial information. Methods ANOVAs and Scheffé post-hoc tests a...

This study aims to explore the relationship between authoritarianism, conspiracy mentality and right-wing extremist attitudes based on a secondary analysis of a German representative survey and using structural equation modeling (N = 2.312). Empirical research has revived the concept of authoritarianism to explain right-wing extremist attitudes – a...

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate (1) the type and frequency of reported life events of the East German population related to the German reunification and (2) their associations with psychosocial health. Methods: Data of 2247 participants of the Study of Health in Pomerania was used.These qualitative responses were analyse...

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are highly prevalent and increase the risk for long-term adverse health outcomes. Next to well-known ACE-associated risks for morbidity, recent research is increasingly invested in exploring pathways towards health, overall functioning, and partaking in society following early adversity. Objectives...

Background Mental resources such as optimism and social support are important to face different stressors. The aim of this study is to identify groups in the population that are similar in terms of their mental resources. Methods For this purpose, a randomly selected general population community sample was used, representative for the city of Leip...

The irritation scale is a widely used and reliable self-report scale for measuring cognitive and emotional strain related to the work environment. It extends existing measures by providing a sensitive assessment for pre-clinical stress at work. Existing normative data are based on convenience samples and are therefore not representative. This study...

Background The assessment of personality functioning is at the core of current dimensional models of personality disorders. A variety of measures from different clinical and research traditions aim to assess basic psychological capacities regarding the self and others. While some instruments have shown reliability and validity in clinical or other...

Purpose In this cross-sectional survey, we assessed the prevalence of dry eye disease (DED) in a representative German population sample. In addition, we examined the associations between DED, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and level of fatigue. Finally, we further validated the German version of the Standard Patient Evaluation of Eye Dryn...

Background Epidemiological research on the prevalence of traumatic events and PTSD has shown that there are significant differences between countries, due to their different history and socialization processes. In the case of Germany, this is particularly relevant. Germany was divided into two states from 1949 to 1990. This study examines the preva...

Background: Chronic stress results from an imbalance of personal traits, resources and the demands placed upon an individual by social and occupational situations. This chronic stress can be measured using the Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress (TICS). The aims of the present study are to test the factorial structure of the TICS in a sample of eld...

Loneliness is an established risk factor for impaired health. However, the evidence of whether increased alcohol consumption is a coping mechanism to alleviate loneliness for both genders remains sparse. The cross-sectional study included 8898 men and 8910 women (mean age of 56.2 ± 11.5 years) from three population-based cohort studies in Germany (...

Introduction: Long-term psychodynamic/psychoanalytic psychotherapy (LTPP) is a prevalent treatment option for complex mental disorders. Yet, little is known about the role of treatment intensity in LTPP. We present a study protocol for a systematic review and individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis aggregating and analysing individual data...

Background This study aimed to compare the quality of life (QoL) reported by childhood cancer survivors (CCS) drawn from a cohort of the German Childhood Cancer Registry with a representative general population sample and, within CCS, to test associations between QoL and health behavior, health risk factors, and physical illness. Methods CCS ( N =...

Objective/background: Despite its high prevalence, little information is available about the course of insomnia symptoms over the life span. In this study, we analyzed the self-reported insomnia symptoms of the general population over more than 20 years, covering young up to middle adulthood. Patients/methods: Data from waves 12 to 32 of the Sax...

In this article, supplementary data analyses regarding the association between different types of child maltreatment (CM) and diabetes as well as mediation analyses examining the role of personality functioning are provided (original research article: ‘Associations of different types of child maltreatment and diabetes in adulthood – the mediating e...

Due to the division of Germany into the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany following the Second World War, large parts of the population of today's Germany were socialized under different socio-economic, political, and legal conditions, which could possibly lead to different experiences with corporal punishment as a meth...

Associations of preterm birth with later-life mental distress are well-established. A research gap concerns the role of psychosocial factors such as the family context. This study investigated associations of recalled parental rearing behavior with both preterm birth characteristics and psychological symptom burden later in life. Based on birth re...

In diesem Policy Paper berichten wir die Ergebnisse einer bevölkerungsrepräsentativen Erhebung in den ostdeutschen Bundesländern. Die Stichprobe umfasst N = 3.546 Befragte und gestattet Vergleiche zwischen einzelnen Bundesländern und Bevölkerungsgruppen, die bei kleineren Stichproben nicht möglich sind. Wir betrachten die rechtsextreme Einstellung,...

Introduction Social and demographic characteristics are crucial determinants of health. The objective of this contribution is to study the associations of skin symptoms and sociodemographic variables in the general population, and to discuss these findings in view of the biomedical and the biopsychosocial models of skin diseases. Methods A nationa...

Einleitung: Bisher ist wenig über das Gesundheitsverhalten von Personen mit einer vermeidend/restriktiven Essstörung (ARFID) bekannt. Forschung in der Allgemeinbevölkerung zeigt, dass allgemeine Psychopathologie mit einem höherem prevention focus (d.h. Fokus den Gesundheitszustand zu halten und eine Verschlechterung zu vermeiden) beim Gesundheitsve...

The Hedonic Overeating-Questionnaire (HEDO-Q) is a brief self-report measure for the trait assessment of liking (pleasure to eat; consummatory reward component), wanting (food craving; anticipatory reward component), and dyscontrol (loss of control over eating). In the original validation study, higher scores on each of the three subscales related...

The Hedonic Overeating-Questionnaire (HEDO-Q) is a brief self-report measure for the trait assessment of liking (pleasure to eat; consummatory reward component), wanting (food craving; anticipatory reward component), and dyscontrol (loss of control over eating). In the original validation study, higher scores on each of the three subscales related...

Aims: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major global public health problem. Although IPV is known to be frequent and perpetration and victimisation often co-occur, large representative samples assessing both, male and female IPV perpetration and victimisation and overlaps are missing to date. Thus, we aimed to assess victimisation and perpetrat...

Purpose Mental distress has become a major public health concern. Temporal trends in psychological distress are complex and depend on numerous factors. In this study, we examined age-period-cohort effects for mental distress including gender and German region over a 15 years’ time span. Methods Data on mental distress from ten cross-sectional surv...

Backgound Headache disorders are not only among the most prevalent, they are also among the most disabling disorders worldwide. This paper investigates the association between headache impact on daily life and the socioeconomic status (SES) of headache sufferers. Methods Data stem from a random general population sample in Germany. Respondents who...

Background: Loneliness is a major public health issue and the identification of risk factors is crucial for prevention and intervention. While previous research has often investigated sociodemographic and external factors (e.g., living situation), personality variables received less attention. This study aimed to harness recent advances in the dime...

Zusammenfassung In der Aktuellen Analyse stellen Oliver Decker, Johannes Kiess, Ayline Heller, Julia Schuler und Elmar Brähler zentrale Ergebnisse der Leipziger Autoritarismus Studien 2022 (LAS) vor. Diese untersuchen rechtsextreme Einstellungen in Deutschland im Langzeitverlauf. Seit 2002 wird im Zweijahresrhythmus eine repräsentative Stichprobe d...

Background Loneliness is a highly relevant public mental health issue. This work presents the validation of a single-item measure of loneliness and its subjective experience: “I am frequently alone/have few contacts”. It can be used in large-scale population surveys where an economical assessment is of key importance. Methods Data was drawn from t...

Objective: The heterogeneous conceptualizations and classifications of persistent and troublesome physical symptoms impede their adequate clinical management. Functional somatic disorders (FSD) is a recently suggested interface concept that is aetiologically neutral and allows for dysfunctional psychobehavioral characteristics as well as somatic c...

Background: Short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) is frequently used to treat depression, but it is unclear which patients might benefit specifically. Individual participant data (IPD) meta-analyses can provide more precise effect estimates than conventional meta-analyses and identify patient-level moderators. This IPD meta-analysis examin...

Background: The present study aimed to investigate how depressive symptoms affect bodyweight change (gain and loss), and how this association is intertwined with other psychosocial and biomedical factors in the adult general population. Methods: In a population-based, prospective, observational single-center cohort study in the Rhine-Main-Region...

Aim: The present study investigated regional differences in response behaviour for the Patient Health Quetionnaire-9. We tested for measurement invariance and differential item and test functioning between formerly divided East- and West-Germany: the former German Democratic Republic and Federal Republic of Germany. Diverging socialization experie...

Background Parents and caregivers belonged to those with the highest burdens during the COVID-pandemic. Considering the close link between parental stress and child maltreatment, identifying families with high parental stress is of utmost importance to prevent violence against children. Within this study, we thus aimed to investigate the interplay...

Zusammenfassung Ziel Schlafbeschwerden zählen zu den häufigsten gesundheitlichen Beschwerden in der Allgemeinbevölkerung. Der Bedarf nach guten Screeninginstrumenten und Präventionsangeboten ist groß. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist es, ein Ein-Item-Screeninginstrument zu evaluieren und damit einen Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Früherkennung zu lei...

Purpose This study aimed to examine the role of personality functioning in the association between various types of child maltreatment (CM) (sexual, physical, and emotional abuse as well as physical and emotional neglect) and diabetes in adulthood. Methods Analyses are based on representative data of the German population (N=5,041) from 2016 and 2...

Erinnerte Repressionserfahrungen in den letzten Jahren der DDR und deren Auswirkungen im Lebensverlauf Im Jahr 2000 erhielt Eric R. Kandel den Nobelpreis für Medizin für seine Forschungen zum Gedächtnis. Durch seine Studien mit der Seeschnecke Aplysia wurde bekannt, auf welcher neurowissenschaftlichen Basis menschliche Erinnerungen entstehen. 1 Doc...

Seit 2002 erhebt die Arbeitsgruppe der Leipziger Autoritarismus-Studien die po- litische Einstellung in Deutschland. Im vorliegenden Beitrag berichten wir über die theoretische Konzeption und beziehen uns dabei auf ausgewählte Befunde. Zum Abschluss wollen wir an dieser Stelle aus unserer Sicht einen Ausblick auf den Ertrag einer psychoanalytisch i...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der...

Deficits in mentalization are indicated by impaired emotional awareness and self-reflectiveness, and are associated with various mental disorders. However, there is a lack of validated research instruments. In this study, the psychometric properties of the Mentalization Questionnaire (MZQ) were evaluated in a representative German population sample...

Objective The Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) is commonly used, but its factor structure remains unclear. The MFI-20 consists of five subscales (general fatigue, physical fatigue, reduced activity, reduced motivation, and mental fatigue). This study investigates the psychometric properties, including the factor structure, of a general G...

Im Jahr 2019 begann das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) insgesamt 14 Verbundprojekte zu fördern, die das Ziel hatten, die „strukturelle Verankerung der DDR-Forschung der Deutschen Hochschul- und Forschungslandschaft“ zu stärken. Die Autoren haben in einem Editorial dieser Zeitschrift über die Intensivierung der Forschung zur DDR-...

To a large extent health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a product of life-course experiences. Therefore, we examined employment, marital, and reproductive life-course typologies as predictors of HRQoL in women and men. To determine life course clusters, sequence and cluster analysis were performed on the annual (waves 1990–2019) employment, mar...

Objective: The reunification of Germany after the separation between 1949 and 1990 has offered a unique chance of studying the impact of socialization, political transformation, and migration on mental health. The purpose of this article was to compare mental distress, resources, and life satisfaction (1) between residents of East and West Germany...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Krebskranke Eltern minderjähriger Kinder stehen neben der Bewältigung eigener Belastungen vor der schwierigen Aufgabe, ihren Kindern die Diagnose und deren Auswirkungen zu vermitteln. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, die Wahrnehmung der Eltern in Bezug auf die Gespräche mit ihren Kindern zu untersuchen und wesentlich...

In dem Kapitel geht es um die Haltungen der Deutschen zu Krieg und Militär am Beispiel des Krieges gegen die Ukraine und zudem um Indikatoren, die Kriegsbefürwortung erklären. Datengrundlage ist die Leipziger Autoritarismusstudie 2022, eine repräsentative Bevölkerungsumfrage, die alle zwei Jahre wiederholt wird.

Haben sich rechtsextreme und autoritäre Einstellungen in Deutschland verändert? Nimmt die Ausländerfeindlichkeit weiter ab? Und wie stehen die Deutschen zur Demokratie? Diese Fragen beantwortet die „Leipziger Autoritarismus-Studie 2022“. Seit 2002 analysieren Wissenschaftler und Wissenschaftlerinnen der Universität Leipzig die Entwicklung autoritä...

Die COVID-19-Pandemie, die Weltfinanzkrise, der anthropogene Klimawandel, die russische Invasion der Ukraine – all diese Ereignisse haben gemeinsam, dass es Menschen gibt, die glauben wollen, dunkle wie geheime Kräfte seien dafür verantwortlich zu machen und nichts sei so, wie es scheint (vgl. Barkun, 2013). Die Präsenz solcher Verschwörungserzählu...

Die Zeiten sind unsicher: Klimawandel, COVID-19-Pandemie, der Angriffskrieg Russlands gegen die Ukraine, Energiemangel und Inflation bestimmen in dichter Folge die öffentliche Debatte und das Leben in der Bundesrepublik. Welche Auswirkungen haben diese Herausforderungen auf die politische Kultur und die Gesellschaft? Auf Grundlage der Ergebnisse de...

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between a person’s psychological distress, subjective physical health and their attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic. The evaluation was performed on the basis of data from two waves of the Saxon Longitudinal Study, carried out in 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2021. The number of study participants in bot...

Research: Question How did the general and area specific life satisfaction evolve between East and West Germany between 1991 and 2020? Methods: Based on three representative surveys in the years 1991, 2006 and 2020 life satisfaction between East and West Germany was examined using mean comparison with tests of significance. The influence of rele...

Background Child maltreatment is a risk factor for a range of mental disorders later in life, including dangerous self-harm and suicide attempts. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying this association can inform prevention and intervention. Objective To investigate personality functioning as a potential mediator of the association of...

Objective Research has described positive psychological outcomes after severe illness, including posttraumatic growth. The aim of the present research was to evaluate a short scale assessing posttraumatic growth within a sample of cancer survivors to provide an efficient instrument for research and care settings. Methods Using data of a registry-b...

Objective: Previous research showed that individuals with eating disorders (EDs) can be subtyped by their levels of psychopathology and self-regulation abilities. However, nothing is known about whether self-regulation abilities are solely suited to depict the heterogeneity in ED and comorbid psychopathology in nonclinical samples. Therefore, this...

Purpose Research on prevalence rates of traumatic events and PTSD has shown significant differences between countries, due to their different history and socialization processes. In the case of Germany, with its history of two divided states, this is highly relevant. This study explores the prevalence of traumatic events and PTSD in formerly divide...

Objectives: Quality of life (QOL) is increasingly used as indicator in health research. The aim of this paper was an updated psychometric validation and a new standardization of the German version of the EUROHIS-QOL using a sample of the German general population assessed in 2021. The study focused on socio-economic characteristics and on anxiety a...