if you make pictures of yourself with toilet paper in your hand and throw it on the Internet…you’ve probably got some personality dementsions:)
Hey, I hope you are all doing well.
I’m actually writing this post in a bit of a hurry as I’m hitting the road tomorrow and heading back to the US, but I wanted to make sure to get this posted before taking off in the morning. Earlier tonight I was doing some research on PubMed and I came across a study which caught my eye. (if you haven’t heard of PubMed, be sure to read about how to use this ultra-valuable free resource later: https://www.ihaveuc.com/learn-how-to-use-pubmed-for-free-its-amazingly-easy/)
So here’s the deal, there’s a recent study from a few months ago titled “Personality dimensions and type D personality in female patients with ulcerative colitis“. If you’re like me, you’d never heard of a “TYPE D Personality”, so here’s how the study defines this:
“Type D personality encompasses two main personality traits: 1) Negative Affectivity (NA) and 2) Social Inhibition (SI). Negative affectivity which is defined as the tendency to experience negative emotions across various times and situations, is closely related to neuroticism. Having high score in this trait, point out to more feelings of dysphoria, anxiety, irritability, anger, and a negative view about self and the external world. Social inhibition refers to the tendency to inhibit the expression of emotions in social interactions. Individuals with high SI score tend to avoid expressing negative emotions because of their fear of disapproval or getting no reward from the others.”
Take a moment and maybe read over that definition there again, there’s alot of big words there, and holy crap, I think I recognize some of them in myself for sure, maybe you too:)
Back to the actual study, it was interesting to learn that a group of doctors/scientists had decided to take the plunge and explore some of the effects that UC/IBD has on personality traits. There are some big words used in the full article (which is free to read), but much of the “Results & Discussion” section is simple to read and learn from. And I highly encourage you all to give it a read if this topic is interesting for you.
So often on this site we talk about our physical symptoms, and diets/medications/poop transplants/surgery etc… but there’s obviously so much more to living with UC. That’s no big surprise. I mean come on…the big QOL (quality of life) score, that’s pretty important right?
Here’s a few snippets directly from the study which I think you may find interesting too:
- “The present findings showed that UC patients scored significantly higher on Neuroticism than the normal group.”
- “type D personality may be associated with greater cortisol reactivity to stress”
- “negative emotions cause some changes in the gastrointestinal motor, sensory and secretory functions[12] and thereby exacerbate the bowel symptoms in neurotic UC patients”
- “UC patients compared to the healthy control group scored lower in extraversion”
- “IBD patients utilize more passive coping strategies”
One thing the authors of the study explained, which should also be considered is this:
“The results of this study should be interpreted with some cautions because of some limitations. First, the current findings were based on relatively small sample size which has limited investigating the mediational or moderational relations. Second, this study was performed only on female UC patients”.
So what do you think, is this type of study interesting for you also?
Does this make you feel better/worse in any ways?
Do you feel you fit into some of the research? (I’m for sure lower in extraversion compared to 10 years ago…maybe a good thing though:)
The Bottom Line:
Maybe the results aren’t the most amazing thing you’ve seen this week, that’s your decision. But it sure makes me feel good knowing there’s research happening on these topics. So many thanks to the good folks out there in Iran who conducted this project. The more we know, the more likely we are to find solutions for everyone. That’s what I believe.
The full article can be read for free right here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3698645/
In good health,
Adam Scheuer
PS: 10 Brownie Points for anybody who writes a comment below declaring yourself a “Type D” pesonality
I started site shortly after being diagnosed in October of 2008 with severe pancolitis (when my whole colon was inflamed).
For me, it was a very rough start with severe symptoms. Getting bounced from medication to medication was not easy or too helpful. But, I did meet another UC’er, changes several parts of my diet, and of course the rest is history.
Leave a comment, ask a question, take advantage of our past experiences here, use the search boxes, they are your friends to0:)
I’ve written 2 different ulcerative colitis ebooks, you can check them out here.
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