Exploration of personality in the patients with the inflammatory bowel disease

Background/Aim: The Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), which include the Ulcerative colitis (UC) and the Crohn’s disease (CD), are chronic diseases, the course of which is under the influence of numerous psychosocial factors. The aim of this study is the exploration of the personality traits of patients with IBD. Methods: This cross-sectional study has been conducted at the University Clinical Hospital Centre Zvezdara, Belgrade, Serbia. The study involved 150 patients suffering from IBD of both genders, out of which 50.7% and 49.3% patients suffering from UC and CD, respectively. The main inclusion criteria were: aged 18 to 65 and confirmed the diagnosis of UC or CD in remission. Sociodemographic and disease related data were collected from the hospital medical records. The personality traits related data were collected using the self-report forms of The Revised NEO Personality inventory (NEO PI–R) and DELTA 10. Results: At the domain-level, significant differences between IBD sample and normative sample have been found in the Neuroticism (p<0.01) and the Disintegration (p<0.01). At the facet-level, IBD sample scored significantly higher than normative sample on Anxiety (p<0.01), Assertiveness (p<0.01), Tender-Mindedness (p<0.01) and Dutifulness (p<0.01), and significantly lower scores on Warmth (p<0.01), Excitement Seeking (p<0.01), Positive Emotion (p<0.01), Actions (p<0.01), and on the all facets of Disintegration except Depression, Somatoform 4 Dysregulation and Social Anhedonia (p<0.01). The differences between UC and CD have been found only at the facet-level. The facets that adds most predictive power to the discriminative function is the General Executive Impairment, followed by Warmth, SelfDiscipline, Depression and Mania. Conclusion: The IBD patients have shown to differ from the general population in terms of basic personality structure, at the domain-level and at the facet-level. The differences between UC and CD patients can be found only at the facet-level. Screening of the personality traits and early detection of IBD patients who are at a greater risk of mental disorders and bad psychosocial functioning can enable their adequate prevention and improve the course of the disease.