Comparison of Personality Characteristics of Individuals with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Healthy Individuals

Psychological variables have a crucial role in genesis and perpetuation of physical diseases. What is the relation between the Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) as a prevalent gastrointestinal disorder and psychological variables? The aim of this study was to compare the personality characteristics of patients with IBS and healthy individuals.

The personality characteristics that have examined in this study included neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness and resilience. Sixty patients with IBS (26 men, 34 women) and 104 healthy participants (38 men, 66 women) were included in this study. All the participants were asked to complete the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-FFI) and the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Analysis of the data involved both descriptive and inferential statistics including means, standard deviations and multivariate analysis of variance.

The results revealed that patients with IBS have more neuroticism and less extraversion and conscientiousness in comparison with the healthy individuals. The results of this study did not show a significant difference in openness and agreeableness dimensions as well as resilience between patients with IBS and the healthy individuals.

It can be concluded that personality variables can partly predict infection to IBS.