OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose was to assess personality trait differences between the severely @entity28 seeking treatment and a mainly non- @entity28 reference group. We also investigated gender differences and differences between @entity28 @entity1 and @entity28 not seeking treatment. METHOD: Personality traits were assessed using 7 of 15 scales from the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP): @entity148 , Muscular Tension, Psychastenia, Psychic @entity148 , Monotony Avoidance, @entity23 , and Irritability. @entity1 from the Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) intervention study (n=3270, ages 37-57, 71% @entity1 ) and the SOS reference study (n=1135, 54% @entity1 ) completed the survey. Data presented in this study were gathered prior to treatment. Significance tests and effects sizes were calculated. RESULTS: Although statistically significant differences were found between @entity28 @entity1 and reference subjects on nearly all personality traits, effect sizes were at most moderate. Of the three scales with moderate effects sizes, differences on @entity148 and Psychastenia could be traced to items tapping condition-specific symptoms, e.g., problems with sweating and breathing as indicators of @entity148 . Moderate differences on the @entity23 scale ( @entity1 alone) could not be explained by item composition. Further, the @entity28 @entity1 differed from @entity28 in the reference group, and both @entity28 and reference @entity1 reported significantly higher levels on @entity148 , Muscular Tension and Psychic @entity148 compared to @entity1 (effect size: small). CONCLUSIONS: Our results provided no evidence of a general @entity28 profile, instead considerable heterogeneity in personality traits was observed across our @entity28 samples (treatment seekers vs non-seekers, @entity1 vs @entity1 ) and generally only small differences were noted compared to a reference study population. Further research is needed to investigate if the somewhat elevated levels of @entity23 , particularly among @entity28 @entity1 , is affected by @entity353 . When assessing personality traits in diseased groups consideration should be given to possible confounding from, e.g., somatic symptoms.

XXXX and personality: a comparative controlled study of personality traits.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['women', 'Patients', 'patients', 'men'] @entity353 :: ('MESH:D015431', 'Disease') :: ['weight loss'] @entity28 :: ('MESH:D009765', 'Disease') :: ['male obese', 'obese personality', 'obese'] @entity23 :: ('MESH:D007174', 'Disease') :: ['Impulsiveness'] @entity148 :: ('MESH:D001008', 'Disease') :: ['Anxiety', 'Somatic Anxiety']
@entity28 :: (MESH:D009765,Disease) :: ['Severe obesity']
