Chronic duodenal ulcer, marital status and personality pattern. A case-control study

Abstract The aim of the study was to assess the association of chronic duodenal ulcer (DU) with marital status and psychological factors. Sixty-six consecutive patients with DU were compared with 66 randomly selected age, sex, and social-grade matched community controls, with regard to marital status and personality profile. Personality was assessed at interview by the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, Costello-Comrey Personality Questionnaire and the Eysenck Personality Inventory.
It was found that patients with higher scores on the Beck Depression Inventory and patients who were unmarried were significantly more likely to have DU (odds ratio = 1.2 and 3.3, respectively). None of the other psychometric measures were statistically significant on a multivariate analysis. However, the absolute differences observed and the odds ratio for depression were small. The results suggest that the psychological factors studied were of only minor clinical importance in DU.