Social desirability and irritable bowel syndrome.

The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, a 33-item self-report questionnaire, was administered to an age-matched sample of twenty-five irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients, twenty-four psychiatric patients meeting a diagnosis of major depression, and nineteen controls. As predicted, planned comparisons analysis showed a significant group effect: IBS group scores were significantly higher than both depressed and control group scores (p less than .05). Implications of this social desirability response set for the psychological assessment and treatment of IBS are discussed.