Research
Personality of outpatients with malignant tumors: a cross-sectional study
Department of Spinal Surgery and Medical Engineering, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-174 Edobashi, Tsu city, Mie, 514-8507, Japan
World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2012, 10:187 doi:10.1186/1477-7819-10-187
Published: 11 September 2012Abstract
Background
There have been scarce large-scale studies investigating the personality of patients with malignant tumors. The purpose of this study is to determine the characteristic personality in malignant tumors outpatients.
Methods
Three thousand and three among 5013 consecutive outpatients who consented to answer the Japanese Maudsley Personality Inventory questionnaires were divided into two groups. 603 outpatients diagnosed with malignant tumors (M group) and the other 2400 outpatients (non-M group) were enrolled in this study. We determined three scores such as introversion/extroversion (E-score), neuroticism (N-score), and lie detection (L-score). All data were used to compare the two groups.
Results
Average E-score was slightly higher, and average N-score was slightly lower in M group than that in non-M group, and no significant differences between the two groups. However, the average L-score in M group was significant higher than that in non-M group (p < 0.01).
Conclusion
Outpatients with malignant tumors showed a significantly higher L-score on MPI when compared with patients with non-malignant tumors. These results stress the importance of taking the mentality of patients with cancer into consideration when conducting treatment and care.
