Psychometric evaluation of patients with behget's disease

ABSTRACT

Behget's disease is a vasculitis with multi-organ involvement. Our knowledge of the psychological aspects of Behget's disease is very limited. 40 women and 24 men who fulfilled the International Study Group [ISG] criteria of Beliefs disease were selected from Beliefs Disease Clinic of Nemazee Hos-pitaK Shiraz, South of Iran. Controls consisted of 65 healthy volunteers. Both patients and controls completed SCL-90R questionnaire. Scores of somatization, obsessive-compulsive behavior, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideations and psychoticism were compared between cases and controls. Patients with Behcet's disease had significantly [P=0.04] higher global severity index of SCL-90R in comparison to controls. The patient group also had significantly higher scores for aggression [P=0.03], anxiety [P=0.04] and somatization [p=0.00] than controls. It is concluded that SCL-90R is a useful tool for evaluation of the psychiatric status of patients with Beliefs disease