Self-reported information about health and mental health status and history on (a) three diverse samples of individuals who reported multiple chemical sensitivities syndrome (n = 60) and (b) one sample of the general population (n = 60) was collected by telephone interview. Subjects from the general population were selected randomly from the telephone directory and were matched for age, gender, and socioeconomic status with index subjects. Data on an additional 10 subjects with multiple chemical sensitivities syndrome were also available for comparison on many of the variables of interest. ...

<.025). However, 15%-45% of the MCS syndrome telephone samples attributed psychiatric treatment to MCS syndrome or to an associated chemical exposure or illness, whereas none of those in the general population did so. In the case of the telephone-interviewed MCS syndrome subjects, we subtracted from the total number of subjects who had received psychiatric treatment the number of subjects who sought help solely for illness from chemical exposures, illness, and hypersensitivity. We then determined the following estimated percentages of subjects who sought psychiatric help for problems unrelated to physical health: 21.7% of the general sample versus 35% of the SBS-onset MCS syndrome group, 5% of the industrial-onset MCS syndrome group, and 10% of the organophosphate-pesticide-onset MCS syndrome group. Forty percent of the chlorine-dioxide-onset MCS syndrome subjects had sought psychiatric help for unrelated problems, whereas 50% had sought help for MCS syndrome or illness and stress secondary to illness and chemical exposure. In terms of psychiatric treatment for reasons unrelated to illness, the likelihood ratio test results suggested that the MCS syndrome groups that were interviewed over the telephone were not significantly different from one another (p>