Psychosomatic Medicine 12:386-390 (1950)
© 1950 American Psychosomatic Society

Personality Factors in Neurodermatitis

A Preliminary Study

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska
² Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
³ Division of Dermatology, Dr. H. E. Michelson, Director, University of Minnesota

There has been a growing interest in the psychologic factors related to dermatologic problems. This paper has attempted to identify some of those factors, making use of a quantitative, statistical approach.

Several trait clusters were established which seemed to characterize neurodermatitis patients as distinguished from patients with other skin conditions and from general medical patients.

A series of 26 differentiating statements were grouped together and treated as a Neurodermatitis Scale. This scale was quite effective in separating out the functional cases from the total sample. The scale could not be presented as a final product, for it was not tested out in new groups, and probably had other limitations as well. It was suggested, however, that the scale could well be used as a preliminary device, and that cutting scores of plus 14 for positive indication and plus 8 and below for negative indication of neurodermatologic conditions here studied could be used for the time being.