Many have heard of the ABC type personalities and their assocoation to certain diseases. However , reading a text book tonight revealed that studies have linked high concordance rates between specific moods, attitudes and personality types to very specific health problems. As one who has always been geared towards the holistic approach to medicine , and my favorite saying " That science will more and more align with spirituality" , I found it interesting. I did a search and didn't see anything as specific as this . So sorry if it's all been said and done before .

I'm curious if any of this rings true to you ???
Source : Carol Ren Kneisl , Eileen Trigoboff " Contemporary Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing".
Arthritis
"Self sacrificing , masochistic, inhibited, perfectionist, and retiring. "
Asthma
" Extreme Inhibition , covert aggression, marked dependent needs, a high need for affection and those prone to depression, anxiety and disturbances of self- esteem ."
Peptic Ulcer
"hostility, irritability, hypersensitivity , and impaired coping ability"
Inflammatory Bowel Disorders
"compulsive personality lifestyle with the following features: neatness, orderliness, puncuality, indecisiveness, emotional guardedness, humorlessness, conscientiousness, obstinacy, conformity, moral rigidness"
Cardiovascular Disease
" Persons who perceive lack of control over work situation, and experience high demands at the same time .lack of both job resilience and personal resilience.
Coronary Artery Disease
" anxiety and depression , a behavior pattern involving feelings of hostility and anger, work overload , life stress , and lack of social support."
Hypertension, cardiac dysrhythmias,cardiac neurosis
"people who have conflict between their dependent and aggressive inclinations which causes repression of all displays of anger or resentment. "
Skin Disorders
" Flare ups associated with :
generalized pruritus: aggression
genital and anal pruitus: sexuality
hyperhidrosis : anxiety
urticaria: anger
atopic dermatitis : longing for love


Does any of this ring true for anyone, or is it bunk science ? One can find a correlation between ice cream sales and violence but it doesn't make ice cream the cause of violence. I'm just curious to hear what you all have to say!

OP, I found your post interesting. I would liken what you say as a resemblance of phrenology and acupuncture. Who knows? You may very well be right. Great first post. Your off to a great start.

Cool you brought this up, I just started a chapter on stress in my Psych class. I think its very true when you think of the possibility that your personality causes you to behave certain ways that would predispose you to interact with your environment more or less, thereby causing some amount of physical stress which could prompt illness or well-being. For example, the correllation between self-sacrificing people and arthritis could be due to the fact that selfless people will go out of their way and commit to activities that were unplanned - more activity, less time for proper diet, weak joints. Pretty general but you get the idea.

Then again, the amount of stress derived from a task is dependent on person's perception of the task and how it makes them feel. Example would be the cardiovascular + lack of self esteem, where people are stressed more often creating a physiological response that produces more cortisol (chemical that stimulates flight or flight) than would be considered normal or healthy, over exhausting their body and weakening their immune system due to the body's overstimulation and need for recovery. In fact cortisol directly affects the immune system by suppressing it. Too many highs and lows and you can see its like overcharging a battery and letting it die out - it shortens longevity, makes it weaker. Conversely, a person who has confidence and see's a stressful situation as fun rather than demeaning won't produce so much cortisol and rather may produce more dopamine which is a stress reliever!

There are lots of explanations one could think of. Although I think personalities can predispose one to certain illnesses, i wouldnt make the assumption that personality traits are the cause.

edit: udderlyinsane has a good interpretation

For an in-depth examination of personality and how it influences physical health go to the free online article at:

Social and Personality Psychology Compass 5/1 (2011): 76–87, 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00331.x

This gives all the current research on the matter and very informative.

This is very interesting. The only one that remotely applied to me was this:

Inflammatory Bowel Disorders "compulsive personality lifestyle with the following features: neatness, orderliness, puncuality, indecisiveness, emotional guardedness, humorlessness, conscientiousness, obstinacy, conformity, moral rigidness"

Although... I don't really have any bowel disorders, but rather, I have extreme stomach problems. I'm easily nauseated. Not by gore or anything like that, I've seen some pretty horrid stuff in my short life and it hasn't turned my stomach. But whenever I get anxiety: it manifests itself in nausea. Same with whenever I get sick... it will always hit me in the stomach. It's my weakest point.

The personality traits that apply to me are: compulsive personality, neatness and orderliness, punctuality, emotional guardedness (big time), conscientiousness (almost to a fault), obstinacy, and moral rigidness (although that could be my upbringing).
Whereas, I didn't see many traits of mine being listed beneath any of the other disorders mentioned.

It's possible that these can be traits of stomach disorders as well as bowel - after all, they're part of the same system.