Psychosomatic Medicine 9:37-44 (1947)
© 1947 American Psychosomatic Society

The Relation of Personality Disturbances to Duration of Convalescence from Acute Respiratory Infections

¹ New York Hospital and the Departments of Medicine (Neurology) and Psychiatry, Cornell University Medical College, and the Psychiatric Division, Bellevue Hospital, New York, N. Y.

Experiments were undertaken to ascertain the relationship between personality disturbances and the duration of convalescence from acute respiratory infections. The Cornell Service Index was used as a measure of personality disturbance and the duration of military hospitalization as the measure of convalescence.

The Cornell Service Index is an adequate measure of personality disturbance as shown by correlations between Index scores, individual psychiatric interview and military evaluation by means of the Army profile.

It was found in one hospital that among 787 white patients with acute respiratory infections the average duration of hospitalization was prolonged by as much as 80 per cent, with an average of 15 per cent, in those with personality disturbances. Consistent results were found in smaller groups of patients with acute minor respiratory infections and pneumonia in two other hospitals. In a group of 135 patients in another hospital, convalescence was prolonged up to 109 per cent, with an average of 22 per cent, in patients with personality disturbances. In a third hospital group of 163 patients, convalescence was prolonged up to 48 per cent, with an average of 40 per cent, in patients with personality disturbance. For the entire group of 102 patients with pneumonias in these latter two hospitals, convalescence was prolonged up to 109 per cent, with an average of 37 per cent, in those with personality disturbance.

The average duration of convalescence from these infections was related to the attitude of the ward officer. One ward officer kept his white patients hospitalized 90 per cent longer than did another ward officer in the same hospital. Officers who were attentive to the complaints of their patients kept them hospitalized longer than did ward officers who disregarded these complaints, and kept their patients with personality disturbances hospitalized proportionately longer than patients without such disturbances.

It is inferred that the portion of the population hospitalized for acute respiratory infections has a higher incidence of personality disturbances than that portion not hospitalized.

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