Personality of patients with fecal incontinence

Although idiopathic fecal incontinence (FI) patients have some psychological characteristics, the personality of FI patients was not described. The present study aims to describe the clinical and personality characteristics of FI patients.

This retrospective observational study included 996 outpatients, 72 with fecal incontinence. They filled out the Rome III diagnostic questionnaire, the personality inventory MMPI-2, the questionnaires for urological and sexual disorders, and Likert scales for bowel disorders perceived symptom severity. The main outcome measures were the presence in FI patients of functional gastrointestinal disorders, the self-reported symptom severity, and the personality profile.

Patients were mainly females (72%). FI patients were characterized by higher age (P = 0.015), and by a higher prevalence of functional diarrhea (P = 0.001), urological (P = 0.001), and sexual disorders (P = 0.005). These patients also report higher diarrhea severity (P < 0.001) and lower abdominal pain severity (P = 0.009). The personality of FI patients is distinguished by a higher score for psychopathic deviate (P = 0.006), social responsibility (P = 0.003), Mac Andrew revised scale (P = 0.005), and antisocial practice (P = 0.007), and a lower score for type A behavior (P = 0.005).

FI patients are characterized not only by older age, and a high prevalence of diarrhea but also by a specific personality profile characterized by an unfavorable comparison with others.