Personality and physical symptoms in nonpsychiatric patients with functional gastrointestinal disorder

We investigated the relationship between personality and reported pain and somatic distress in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGD) without psychopathology.

Fifty-six patients and 55 controls completed Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI), NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ: N+L scales), and Giessener Physical Complaints Checklist (GBB). Patients also completed McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for abdominal pain and target symptom (abdominal distress).

Patients displayed significantly higher levels of neuroticism and covert aggression than controls. Number of words chosen (NWC) to describe pain and sensory pain index (MPQ), but not pain intensity on VAS, were predicted by indirect aggression -- and less so by neuroticism -- in females and covert aggression in males (stepwise regression model). Patients reported far more extraintestinal somatic complaints than controls.

Out of nine dimensions of hostility and five dimensions of personality, only neuroticism and concealed aggression are increased in FGD patients without psychiatric comorbidity compared with healthy controls. These personality traits influence pain reports and should be taken into account when evaluating and treating patients with FGD. Neuroticism and concealed aggression are most likely markers of vulnerability to FGD and not merely reflections of being chronic ill or explained by sample bias secondary to illness behavior.