The Validity of Eysenck’s Neuroticism Dimension within the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory in Patients with Duodenal Ulcer

Abstract

A psychometric analysis on patients with duodenal ulcer using latent structure coefficients (Loevinger and Mokken) showed that the MMPI subscales of depression, psychasthenia, hypochondriasis, hysteria, schizophrenia and social introversion all could be considered as indicators of Eysenck’s dimension of neuroticism. Both a MMPI neuroticism scale of 15 items (MMPI/N-15) and of 21 items (MMPI/N-21) were psychometrically valid, i.e. the total score was a sufficient statistic. Patients with duodenal ulcer who improved during treatment also had a significant decrease in their neuroticism scores, whereas patients who did not improve had unchanged neuroticism scores. In other words, neuroticism is secondary to the clinical symptoms of duodenal ulcer (a psychological adjustment to illness) and not an etiological factor.

Eysenck’s Two Big Personality Factors and Their Relationship to Depression in Patients with Chronic Idiopathic Pain Disorder: A Clinimetric Validation Analysis

“…In psychosomatic research Eysenck's neuroticism dimension has proved to be the most useful personality scale, resulting in attempts being made to identify Eysenck's dimension in other personality scales such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) [27, 28]. In both attempts, the anxiety-related items clearly outperformed the depression-related items in the Eysenck neuroticism concept.…”

“…In our previous study on patients with duodenal ulcer we demonstrated [28] that neuroticism was a reaction to the clinical symptoms of this disease, not an etiological factor.…”

Personality does not distinguish people with fibromyalgia but identifies subgroups of patients

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Neuroticism in Relation to Recovery and Persisting Pain after Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

“…In a previous study we showed (19,20) that in patients with peptic ulcer the Eysenck Neuroticism dimension reflected a coping with illness pattern rather than an aetiologic factor. Thus, a high neuroticism score was only seen in patients who had a partial response to treatment.…”