Premorbid personality in chronic fatigue syndrome as determined by the Temperament and Character Inventory.
BACKGROUND
Using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), we examined personality characteristics in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) compared with healthy control subjects, and CFS patients with and without psychiatric diseases. There have been no previous reports assessing personality in CFS patients using the TCI.


METHODS
A total of 211 CFS patients and 90 control subjects completed the TCI and the Chalder Fatigue Scale questionnaires.


RESULTS
Compared with control subjects, CFS patients demonstrated significantly lower premorbid Novelty Seeking, and higher Harm Avoidance and persistence. The fatigue score for CFS patients with psychiatric diseases was higher than that for CFS patients without psychiatric diseases. Patients with CFS with psychiatric diseases showed lower premorbid Self-Directedness when compared with CFS patients without psychiatric diseases. The fatigue score was negatively correlated with premorbid Self-Directedness and Cooperativeness, and positively correlated with Harm Avoidance among CFS patients.


CONCLUSIONS
This study supported the stereotyped image of CFS patients as perfectionists, which is similar to the Persistence score, and neurotics, which is similar to the Harm Avoidance score. Patients displaying greater neuroticisms and poorer social and communication skills, similar to the Self-Directedness and Cooperativeness scores, tend to have intercurrent psychiatry diseases and show more severe symptoms of CFS.
Fukuda
Sanae
S
Department of Physiology, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka 545-8585, Japan. fukuda@med.osaka-cu.ac.jp
Kuratsune
Hirohiko
H
Tajima
Seiki
S
Takashima
Shoko
S
Yamagutchi
Kouzi
K
Nishizawa
Yoshiki
Y
Watanabe
Yasuyoshi
Y
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D002605:Character; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005221:Fatigue / Q000523:psychology; D015673:Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012917:Social Adjustment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament