Ulcerative colitis was rare in Korea but nowadays the incidence of ulcerative colitis in Korea is increasing. Physicians and surgeons often suspect that their patients with ulcerative colitis are of a particular personality type. Since Murray
first
observed an association between emotional factors and ulcerative colitis in 1930, a voluminous amount of literature addressing this topic has accumulated. The possible association between psychiatric disturbances and ulcerative colitis is a topic
still
open to debate. In this study. in order to assess the relationship between psychological features and ulcerative colitis in Korea, forty six patients attending our clinic for ulcerative colitis and forty-seven patients diagnosed with somatoform
disorder
were assessed using a Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventry(MMPI). The mean scores of patients were around 50. The patients were subdivided into two groups based on multivariate cluster analysis. In the first group (n=29), mean scores of
scale
Hs,
D, Hy were not elevated (47, 50 and 48). In the second group(n=14), mean scores of scale Hs, D, Hy and psychasthenia were elevated (63, 62, 65 and 62). Scale D was lower than scale Hs and Hy, which is referred to as the "psychosomatic V". The
patients
with somatoform disorder were subdivided into two groups. As compared to the patients with somatoform disorder, there was no difference between the mean scores of the second group and somatoform disorder. In conclusion, one-third of the
ulcerative
colitis patients demonstrated scales indicating neurotic traits such as hypochondriasis, depression and hysteria. These results suggest that in some cases of ulcerative colitis, the etiology, course and prognosis of disease may be closely related
to the
personality traits of patients with somatoform disorder.
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