Peptic ulcer in adults. Psychopathological, environmental, characterological and hereditary factors

34 male peptic ulcer patients were compared to (a) a group of 37 healthy controls and (b) a group of 36 hospitalized controls suffering from illnesses unrelated to the gastrointestinal tract. Patients and controls were submitted to the Eysenck personality inventory, Foulds' hostility questionnaire, Langner's 22-item questionnaire, the Hopkins symptom checklist, Zung's self-rating anxiety scale, Spielberger's state-trait anxiety inventory, Zung's and Beck's rating scales for depression, and the 43-item life event inventory by Holmes and Rahe. All patients suffered from duodenal ulcer. The parameters that differentiated to a statistically significant degree the peptic ulcer patients from either one or both groups of controls were: (a) neuroticism, (b) trait and state anxiety, (c) guilt, (d) general psychopathology, and (e) stressful life events. Additionally, more than 50% of patients had at least one first-degree relative with peptic ulcer. These observations indicate that psychopathological, psychosocial, characterological and hereditary factors are important pathogenetic contributors in peptic ulcer.