Pain and personality in duodenal ulcer: a preliminary report

Personality factors measured by the Cattell's 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire were assessed for 78 duodenal ulcer patients with moderate to severe pain and in 30 duodenal ulcer patients with mild or no pain. The two groups were comparable for relevant sociodemographic variables. Patients with moderate to severe pain were significantly more tender-minded, kindly, and tended to be more introspective and glum than those reporting mild or no pain. However, the reported differences are small; adjustment of the p values to avoid Type I errors makes these differences no longer statistically significant. These results must be considered preliminary; further studies are necessary to understand the topic better.