Personality disorders and psychiatric symptoms in psoriasis

Two groups of psoriatic outpatients (ns = 192 and 119) were given, respectively, the Million Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II and Foulds' Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory. They were compared with dental (n = 192) and with general surgical (n = 190) patients. The psoriatic group presented clearly higher mean scores and frequencies on most of the personality disorder scales. On Foulds' inventory, psoriatic patients showed higher frequencies of neurotic and psychotic class allocations. A cluster analysis of personality scores provided evidence for 4 different personality clusters of patients with psoriasis: (a) Avoidant, Dependent, Schizoid, and Self-defeating (32.2%), (b) Compulsive, Narcissistic, and Aggressive (30.7%), (c) no personality disorder (18.2%), (d) Borderline, Paranoid, and Schizotypal, etc. (18.8%).