Farnam et al (Drossman et al 2002), are widely used in IBS patients and can balance the neuroticism dimension of such patients. IBS patients with high self-consciousness may beneﬁt from selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors which increase the extracellular level of the neurotransmitter serotonin. A systematic review on the effectiveness of psychological treatments in IBS is currently being undertaken (Creed and Guthrie 1989), a procedure which may help balance the agreeableness and openness dimensions of personality. The present study gives added evidence of differences between IBS patients and the general population. This may help to focus the management plan to obtain a better outcome. There are evidences of differences of personality dimensions according to symptom-based subtypes of IBS (Tanum and Malt 2000), which will be considered in our later studies. Disclosure The authors report no conﬂicts of interest in this work. References Bennett EJ, Palmer K, Badcock C-A, et al. 1998. Functional gastrointestinal disorders: psychological, social, and somatic features. Gut, 42:414–20. Camilleri M, Choi MG. 1997. Review article: irritable bowel syndrome. Aliment Pharmacol Ther, 11:3–15. Creed F, Guthrie E. 1989. Psychological treatment of the irritable bowel syndrome: a review. Gut, 30:1601–9. Costa PT, McCrae RR. 1997. Stability and change in personality assessment: The revised NEO Personality Inventory in the year 2000. J Pers Assess, 68:86–94. Drossman DA, Camilleri M, Mayer E, et al. 2002. AGA technical review on irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology, 123:2108–31. Drossman DA, Corazziari E, Talley NJ, et al. 1999. Rome II: a multinational consensus document on functional gastrointestinal disorders. Gut, 45(Suppl. II):II1–81. Drossman DA, Creed FH, Olden KW, et al. 1999. Psychosocial aspects of the functional gastrointestinal disorders. Gut, 45(Suppl. II): II25–II30. Olden KW. 2003. Irritable bowel syndrome: What is the role of the psyche? Dig Liver Dis, 38:200–1. Fock KM, Chew CN, Tay LK, et al. 2001. Psychiatric Illness, Personality Traits and the Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Ann Acad Med Singapore, 30:611–14. Garousi MT, Mehryar AH, Tabatabi MG. 2001. Application of the NEO PIR test and analytic evaluation of its characteristics and factorial structure among Iranian university students. Human Sci Alzahra Uni, 11:30–8. Guthrie E, Creed F, Dawson D, et al. 1991. A controlled trial of psycho- logical treatment for the irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology, 100:450–7. Talley NJ, Phillips SF, Bruce B, et al. 1990. Relation among personality and symptoms in nonulcer dyspepsia and the irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology, 99:327–33. Tanum L, Malt UF. 2000. Personality traits predict treatment outcome with an antidepressant in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorder. Scand J Gastroenterol, 35:935–41. Tanum L, Malt UF. 2001. Personality and physical symptoms in nonpsy- chiatric patients with functional gastrointestinal disorder. J Psychosom Res, 50:139–46. Tran Y, Craig A, Boord P, et al. 2006. Personality traits and its asso- ciation with resting regional brain activity. Int J Psychophysiol, 60:215–24. Walker EA, Katon WJ, Jemelka RP, et al. 1992. Comorbidity of gastrointestinal complaints, depression, and anxiety in the Epidemio- logic Catchment Area (ECA) Study. Am J Med, 92(1A):26S–30S. Wooda JD, Alpersb DH, Andrews PL. 1999. Fundamentals of neurogas- troenterology. Gut, 45(Suppl 2):II6–II16. 962 Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment 2008:4(5)