Temperament and character profile in patients with essential hyperhidrosis.
OBJECTIVE
The main debates on hyperhidrosis are whether there are some personality features such as anxiety or stress, or whether the psychological symptoms are due to negative social feedback from early life. We aimed to investigate the temperament and character dimensions with a psychobiological inventory.


METHODS
We recruited patients with hyperhidrosis (n=26) and chronic renal failure (n=44) as well as healthy subjects (n=22) from dermatology and nephrology clinics and the general population in Afyonkarahisar. All subjects were required to perform a temperament and character inventory.


RESULTS
The total novelty seeking score in hyperhidrosis was significantly lower than in controls. There was no significance in total harm avoidance scores between hyperhidrosis patients and controls. The total reward dependence and persistence scores were significantly higher in hyperhidrosis patients. The fear of uncertainty in the harm avoidance scale was found to be significantly greater in hyperhidrosis patients. Regarding character dimensions, the total score in each of the subscales self-directedness, cooperativeness and self-transcendence was found to be higher in hyperhidrosis patients.


CONCLUSIONS
The higher scores of all subscales of character dimensions in hyperhidrosis patients suggest that hyperhidrosis is not related with social phobia or personality disorder.
Karaca
Semsettin
S
Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. skaraca@aku.edu.tr
Emul
Murat
M
Kulac
Mustafa
M
Yuksel
Seref
S
Ozbulut
Omer
O
Guler
Ozkan
O
Gecici
Omer
O
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006945:Hyperhidrosis / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory