[Gastric and duodenal ulcers as occupational psychosomatic diseases]

Various stresses are considered to be involved in the development of gastric and duodenal ulcers. We interviewed patients of either gastric ulcer group (GU) or duodenal ulcer group (DU) with regular occupation who were admitted to our Psychosomatic Illness Department in order to examine the differences in the characteristics of their stress and developmental factors of their diseases between the two groups. Developmental factors were scored for comparison. The following results were obtained. Though group DU was generally younger than group GU, it tended to have a greater number of episodes. No significant difference was found between the two groups in living habits, life history, or familial, social and physical environments. However, group DU had greater stress than group GU in the working environment. A significantly greater number of patients in group DU smoked and had problems in personal relations as compared with GU. There was a significant correlation between smoking habit and stressfulness of the working environment in both groups. In group DU, there was a significant correlation between the father-child relationship and personal relations. In group DU, a significant number of those who had problems in the relation with their superiors at work had problems in the father-child relation. These findings show that patients with duodenal ulcer had more problems in the working environment, particularly in personal relations, than those with gastric ulcer, and smoking habit appears to accelerate the development of the diseases. Also, a possible association was suggested between problems of personal relations at work and the history of growth.