[Psychological factors in duodenal ulcers]

With the aid of a clinical questionnaire and the I-N-R-personality test of Eysenck (as modified by Böttcher), we examined 127 male patients with clinically and radiologically proven ulcer compared to 145 age-matched persons without gastric affections. The features extraversion, neuroticism (emotional lability) and rigidity were determined and the question of an association with symptoms, age at onset of disease as well as occupational and familial factors statistically analyzed. With high significance, duodenal ulcer patients are more often emotionally labile and psychically more rigid. In the event the disease manifests under the age of 30, in ulcer patients introversion too is pronounced with highly significant frequency. Those patients complaining of conflicts with collaborators, lack of sleep, occupational overexertion, noise, draught at work place, present, compared to others without these complaints, a frequently emotional lability with high significance.