Psychosomatic Medicine 35:91-103 (1973)
© 1973 American Psychosomatic Society

Personality Differences Between Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients and Their Healthy Siblings

Address for reprint requests: Arthur W. McMahon, M.D., Tufts-New England Medical Center, 171 Harrison Ave., Boston, Mass., 02111.

The psychosomatic literature contains many studies of the personality characteristics of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, especially ulcerative colitis and regional enteritis. The authors have just completed a three-year multidisciplinary research study of inflammatory bowel disease during which one hundred patients were evaluated. The first year of the study focussed on the personalities of hospitalized patients with inflammatory bowel disease in whom a pattern of personality traits, psychological defenses, and role in family dynamics emerged which was consistent with many previous studies. During the interviews with patients and a few mothers of patients, siblings were described as quite different in personality from the patients. For this reason and because of the advantage of minimizing differences in family background it was decided to utilize siblings as one of the control groups in the study. The following is a report of the personality differences observed between twenty-three patients with inflammatory bowel disease and their respective healthy siblings and includes data obtained from psychiatric interviews, ratings of personality traits and defenses, psychometric tests including the MMPI, etc., and a discussion of those findings.