Psychosomatic Medicine 10:156-164 (1948)
© 1948 American Psychosomatic Society

Personality Types in Soldiers with Chronic Nonulcer Dyspepsia

One hundred and ten consecutive cases of nonulcer dyspepsia occuring in the Fifth Army forward area in Italy were intensively studied by a team composed of 2 gastroenterologists, a radiologist, a psychologist, a psychiatric nurse, and a psychiatrist.

Medical and laboratory findings were correlated with psychiatric study in a special military setting in which facilities were available for testing the patients' reaction to removal from combat stress.

Emphasis was placed upon the value of determination of personality types into "passive" and "aggressive" for the purpose of gaining better understanding of the role of the dyspepsia in the patients' situation.

Gastroscopic findings of "chronic superficial gastritis" were felt to be of minor importance in the evaluation of the origin of the dyspepsia and insignificant with regard to their possible bearing upon the presence, course, and treatment of the dyspepsia by a functional approach.

An hypothesis is offered pertaining to the psychogenesis of the dyspepsia and the use of this viewpoint in the formulation of a method of therapy.

It is suggested that the above may be of value in the consideration and treatment of functional nonulcer dyspepsia in civilian life.