Investigating the Role of Psychogenic Shivers in Mental Health

Abstract

The presence of shivering and psychogenic shivering in mental health was measured using a compiled database including the DSM-5 and a large body of existing assessment tools and technology. We found results for chills, tremors, and temperature. None of the other shiver-related terms (N=9) yielded any results, which suggests that the role of psychogenic shivering in mental health has been largely understudied by physicians and psychiatrists. Based on the results and the data extracted from a complete database of the literature devoted to psychogenic shivers in cognitive neuroscience, we outline the importance of psychogenic shivering in the assessment of mental health in a clinical setting. We discuss how the tools introduced in this article could be developed further to gather new clinical data about both shivers and health.