Personality traits in a group of individuals with functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract and their correlation with gastrin, somatostatin and oxytocin levels.

The Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP) and some dimensions of the Bergman scale reflecting social dependency and self-confidence were used in 24 individuals with functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. Patients showed higher scores of somatic anxiety, indirect aggression and irritability and lower scores in socialization when compared with a reference group. The levels of gastrointestinal symptoms as well as the levels of some hormones related to vagal nerve activity in this patient group have been reported in a previous publication. When the scores obtained in personality inventories were related to symptom levels, we found significant correlations with intestinal but not abdominal symptoms. Gastrin levels correlated inversely with socialization. Somatostatin levels on the other hand, correlated negatively with social dependency and positively with self-confidence in the Bergman scale. Interestingly, oxytocin levels correlated positively with social dependency and in addition with indirect aggression and verbal aggression. The correlation between hormone levels and scores of personality dimensions will be interpreted and discussed within a physiological context.