Personality Patterns in Migraine and Ulcerative Colitis Patients

This is part of a larger study of relationships between Wechsler subtest patterns and personality traits as identified by the Personality Assessment System (PAS). The PAS, a descriptive system which offers the clinician a method for inferring personality structure and function from objective Wechsler test data, has major advantages for clinical research. The system provides a number of readily testable hypotheses related to differential personality patterns in various clinical groups. It also identifies specific developmental patterns thought to produce conflict and anxiety and to predispose the individual to particular disease states. The PAS views personality in terms of complex interaction patterns berween the individual and the environment and identifies three levels of personality structure and three major personality dimensions. Only the first, the Externalizer-Internalizer dimension, is considered here. In brief, the Externalizer (E), ar one extreme of this dimension, is thought of as perceptually dominant, physically active, and environmentally dependent. The Internalizer (I), at the other extreme, is seen as ideationally dominant, physically inactive, and essentially self-sufficient. An account of the theory and of procedures used in deriving PAS personality patterns from Wechsler test data has appeared previously (Schucman 81 Thetford, 1968). The PAS hypothesizes that migraine patients are predominantly Es, while those with ulcerative colitis are predominantly Is. A specific "tension producing" developmental pattern is hypothesized as characterizing both groups. The sample used in testing these hypotheses included 61 young adults, 36 medically diagnosed as suffering from ulcerative colitis and 25 from migraine. In so far as possible, those with additional medical complications were excluded. The groups were comparable in age and WAIS IQs. In comparing the groups on the incidence of Es and Is at rhe "inherent" or "primitive" level of personality strucrure as identified by the PAS, it was found that 76% of the migraine group and 42% of the ulcerative colitis patients were Es, while 24% of the migraine Ss and 58% of the ulcerative colitis patients were Is. The comparison produced a Yates-corrected X"f 5.52, (p < .02). Further, the predicted "tension-producing" developmental pattern predominated in both groups to a statistically significant extent. The study illustrates the kind of specific hypothesis-testing which the PAS framework permits and also suggests its potential usefulness in clinical research. A more detailed report, which includes analyses related to developmental patterns and to the three personality dimensions which the PAS identifies, is in preparation.