Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Feb 16:2014:631687.
doi: 10.1155/2014/631687. eCollection 2014.

Temperament and character personality profile and illness-related stress in central serous chorioretinopathy

Rupert Conrad  1 , Franziska Geiser  1 , Alexandra Kleiman  1 , Berndt Zur  2 , Andrea Karpawitz-Godt  1
Affiliations

Temperament and character personality profile and illness-related stress in central serous chorioretinopathy

Rupert Conrad et al. ScientificWorldJournal. .

Abstract

Psychological stress is a risk factor as well as a consequence of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). Impulsiveness, overachievement, emotional instability, and hard-driving competitiveness have been discussed as personality features in CSC patients. We investigated 57 consecutive CSC patients and 57 age- and gender-matched controls by means of the Symptom Checklist 90-R and the Temperament and Character Inventory. Somatic risk factors, illness characteristics, subjective assessment of severity of illness, and illness-related stress in different areas of life (work, private life) were evaluated. CSC patients showed significantly higher emotional distress as measured by the Global Severity Index. The CSC personality was characterized by lower scoring on the character dimension cooperativeness and the temperament dimension reward dependence. Cooperativeness as well as subjective assessment of severity of CSC has been recognized as significant predictors of illness-related work stress accounting for 30% of variance. Implicating competitiveness, hostility and emotional detachment, lower level of cooperativeness, and reward dependence support the existence of specific aspects of type A behaviour in CSC patients. Low perceived social support and loss of control may explain the significant contribution of this personality dimension to illness-related work stress. Treatment of CSC should thus incorporate psychoeducation about factors contributing to illness-related stress.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Showing heightened emotional distress and psychopathology, CSC patients scored significantly higher on all nine SCL-90-R symptom dimensions and the Global Severity Index compared to healthy controls.
Figure 2
Figure 2
On the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) CSC patients scored significantly lower on the scales cooperativeness (F(1, 111) = 19.374, P < 0.001) and reward dependence (F(1, 111) = 4.263, P < 0.041) in contrast to controls.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kitzmann AS, Pulido JS, Diehl NN, Hodge DO, Burke JP. The incidence of central serous chorioretinopathy in Olmsted County, Minnesota, 1980–2002. Ophthalmology. 2008;115(1):169–173. - PubMed
    1. Cordes FC. A type of foveo-macular retinitis observed in the U. S. Navy. The American Journal of Ophthalmology. 1944;27(8):803–816.
    1. Borley WE, McAlester AW, Lower RA. Central macular chorioretinitis in naval personnel. United States Naval Medical Bulletin. 1945;45(article 3)
    1. Harrington DO. Ocular manifestations of psychosomatic disorders. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 1947;133(10):669–675. - PubMed
    1. Zeligs MA. Central angiospastic retinopathy: a psychosomatic study of its occurrence in military personnel. Psychosomatic Medicine. 1947;9(2):110–117. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources