R A P I D C O M M U N I C A T I O N Five personality dimensions in patients with irritable bowel syndrome Alireza Farnam Mohammad H Somi Firouz Sarami Sara Farhang Liver and Gastrointestinal Diseases Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran Correspondence: Sara Farhang Liver and Gastrointestinal Diseases Research Center, Imam Hospital, University Ave; Tabriz, East Azerbaijan, Iran Tel +98 411 336 7473 Fax +98 411 336 7499 Email sfarhang@yahoo.com Aim: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) as a functional disorder of the gastrointestinal tract has been related to psychological factors. Aim of this study is to study the differences of personality factors between IBS patients compared to our general population. Methods: This study was performed in clinics of Tabriz Medical University during 2006–2007. IBS was diagnosed using the Rome II diagnostic criteria after exclusion of organic bowel pathology. The entry of each patient was conﬁrmed following a psychiatric interview and after any comorbid psychiatry disorder was ruled out. Personality traits and score of each factor was evaluated using NEO ﬁve factor personality inventory compared to results of a previous study on general population of Iran. Results: One hundred and sixty six patients were studied. The mean age (±SD) of them was 33.6(±11.4) years (60.8% female). Our study population had their symptoms for a mean interval of 47.3 month. The bowel problems were provoked by distress in more than 80% of patients. Pain in female patients was reported to be more frequent but both gender described the associa- tion between stressors and their symptoms. NEO Five-Factor Inventory showed a signiﬁcantly higher level of neuroticism and conscientiousness and lower level of openness and agreeable- ness in theses nonpsychiatric IBS patients. Women with IBS had signiﬁcantly higher levels of openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion compared to men. Conclusion: Differences were observed between IBS patients and general population. Patients with IBS may beneﬁt from psychological interventions. Keywords: irritable bowel syndrome, personality, ﬁve-factor model Introduction The common functional gastrointestinal disorder, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), has a wide variety of presentations (Camilleri and Choi 1997). The etiology is unclear and the syndrome is classiﬁed as “functional” due to absence of any organic causes for symptoms. There is a growing body of evidence that it is inﬂuenced by psychoso- cial stressors. The high rates of psychiatric comorbidity in IBS patients indicate that affective symptoms may be a speciﬁc and integral part of the syndrome, rather than a speciﬁc syndrome related to a chronic intestinal disease (Walker et al 1992). The incidents of mood and anxiety disorders have been practically well studied in the IBS patient using up-to-date procedures and has resulted in recommendations on how to best detect and integrate their treatment to achieve a better outcome (Drossman et al 1999) and have led to signiﬁcant improvements in treatment. Psychotherapeutic intervention for patients with comorbid psychiatric disorders is valuable. Underlying personality structure was mislaid in recognizing IBS may be due to the poor quality and doubtful results of early researches (Olden 2003). Personality, as an almost constant characteristic, is a matter of interest inﬂuencing pain duration, severity, and functional impairment in different diseases but very little is known about personality in IBS. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment 2008:4(5) 959–962 © 2008 Farnam et al, publisher and licensee Dove Medical Press Ltd.This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. 959