Personality characteristics of stress incontinent women: a pilot study

Personality traits were assessed by means of the Karolinska Scale of Personality (KSP) and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) in 45 genuine stress incontinent women and compared with a reference group of continent women in order to investigate the possible impact of this chronic condition on the personality. Women with stress incontinence of long duration scored significantly higher than controls on the KSP scales somatic anxiety, psychic anxiety, psychasthenia and suspicion and on the EPI lie-scale. These findings point to the importance of personality factors in chronic conditions such as urinary incontinence.