Abstract

OBJECTIVES
This subjects investigated the psychological characteristics of patients with functional dyspepsia. METHODS: The subjects included ninety patients with functional dyspepsia and sixty four psychiatric out-patients. We administered Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and Illness Behavior Questionnaire(IBQ). RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the patients with functional dyspepsia and the psychiatric out-patients by MMPI. Two groups both showed a higher distribution in hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria subscales than in any other subscales. The patients with functional dyspepsia showed lower scores in disease conviction and affective disturbance subscales in IBQ subscales were similar between the patients with functional dyspepsia and the psychiatric out-patients. The patients with functional dyspepsia were divided into three groups for the Multivariate cluster analysis: normal(group 1), similar to psychiatric out-patient(group 2), and severe neurotic(group 3). The severe neurotic group showed higher scores in hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychathenia, and schizophrenia subscales in MMPI and showed significant different scores in affective disturbance, disease conviction, psychological and somatic concerns, affective disturbance, denial, and irritability subscales in IBQ. CONCLUSION: If patients with functional dyspepsia show severe neurotic behavior, such as those in(group 3), they would need appropriate psychiatric intervention.

• Keywords: Functional dyspepsia;MMPI;Illness behavior;