'Psychosomatic personality'--a personality constellation or an illness-related reaction?

Personality-specific features as opposed to illness-related reactions were studied in 101 patients with ulcerative colitis, duodenal ulcers or irritable colon syndrome (experimental group) and 81 patients with gallstone disease, inguinal hernia or varicose veins (control group). The method used was the Lazare-Klerman-Armor personality test. Results indicated that features previously suggested to characterize the experimental group, such as egocentricity and dependency, were likely to be illness-related reactions expressed by all patients with an acute disease. The greatest difference between the groups was found on emotionality: the control group found it difficult to control their emotions when they were ill while the experimental group felt emotionally more stable when they were ill.