title: Temperament and character profiles of patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Psychosocial factors have been implicated as being important in the onset and/or exacerbation of urticaria.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine both personality factors of patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) and the correlations between illness duration, severity of itching, urticaria activity score (UAS) and temperament-character dimensions.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total number of 70 CIU patients and 60 healthy individuals were included in the study. The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) was administered individually. The relationship between UAS, illness duration and severity of pruritus and TCI subscales were evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The CIU group had significantly higher scores of novelty seeking and lower scores of cooperativeness, reward dependence and self-directedness than the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current study shows that CIU patients have distinctive temperament and character dimensions when compared with the control group. We suggest that evaluation and treatment of CIU should also include psychosomatic approaches in clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey. Head of the Department: Erkan Alpsoy.
authors.forename: Sevil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Alan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey. Head of the Department: Taha Karaman.
authors.forename: Fatih
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Canan
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey. Head of the Department: Erkan Alpsoy.
authors.forename: Ayşe Akman
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Karakaş
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Antalya Ataturk State Hospital, Antalya, Turkey. Head of the Department: Abdullah Erbil Dırağ
authors.forename: Nihal
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Geçici
keywords: character; chronic idiopathic urticaria; temperament