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Psychological assessment of patients with idiopathic pruritus ani
A Laurent1, J Boucharlat, J L Bosson
1Department of Medical Psychology, CHU Grenoble, France.
Background:
The purpose of this study was to compare psychological profiles in 17 patients suffering from idiopathic pruritus ani with a control group of 28 patients showing secondary pruritus ani.
Methods:
The two groups completed the Mini-Mult personality test and results were compared using chi 2 test and analysis of variance.
Results:
The mean hypomania and depression scale scores were greater and smaller respectively in the idiopathic pruritus ani group. Nevertheless, the percentage of abnormal psychological profiles was not significantly different between the two groups.
Conclusions:
It seems arbitrary to systematically ascribe psychogenic aetiologies to idiopathic pruritus ani even though psychological factors may be present in individual patients.