Personality Characteristics and Dysthymic States in Bronchial Asthma

Abstract

Patients with bronchial asthma were compared with physically ill patients as to personality traits and dysthymic states. Asthmatics were less dominant and more intropunitive, more anxious and more depressed than the control group. Low dominance or dependent social attitude and inhibited hostility was correlated with low vital capacity (FVC).

Psychological distress and associated risk factors in bronchial asthma patients in Kuwait

“…Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS, version 13,2005; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for data management and analysis.…”

“…Previous studies showed either younger [12,13] or elderly [7] patients with asthma suffered from psychological depression. Adams et al [14] documented that psychological distress and decreased feelings are common in asthmatics.…”

Low Dominance and High Intropunitiveness in Ulcerative Colitis and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

“…In previous studies, Lyketsos et al [15][16][17] measured hostile personality characteris tics and dysthymic states using the PDS-SAD scales in hypertensives, peptic ulcer patients, bronchial asthmatics, and skin dis ease patients with urticaria, psoriasis and alopecia. They found that all these groups of patients scored significantly lower on both subscales of dominance, a PDS which mea sures 'a domineering attitude and uninhib ited hostile acts' [21], This dominance scale is thought to measure the tendency to con summate hostility in action during life [16,17].…”

“…They found that all these groups of patients scored significantly lower on both subscales of dominance, a PDS which mea sures 'a domineering attitude and uninhib ited hostile acts' [21], This dominance scale is thought to measure the tendency to con summate hostility in action during life [16,17].…”

“…Five groups of patients -ulcer patients and hypertensives [15], bronchial asthmatics [16], and patients with specific skin disorders (urticaria, psoriasis and alopecia) [17] -have been found to score significantly low in dominance, a hos tile personality characteristic as measured by the Foulds Personality Deviance Scale (PDS) [18], In view of the postulated, but unclarified, involvement of psychological factors in both IBS and UC, and in view of the findings of low dominance in other diseases with psy chological involvement, we studied the hos tile personality characteristics of patients with IBS and UC. Our hypothesis was that UC and IBS patients would also demon strate low dominance scores on the PDS dominance scale, compared to a medical control.…”