Personality differences in patients with and without gallstones.

OBJECTIVE: Presence of gallstones is associated with a range of risk factors that have previously shown associations with personality traits. Our aim was to assess the differences in personality traits between the patients with and without gallstones. METHODS: This study used a case-control design with 308 participants from the general population, 68.2% female, mean age 49.2 (SD 9.24) years, of whom 154 (50%) participants had asymptomatic gallstones. Personality was assessed with the Temperament and Character Inventory - Revised - 140 (TCI-R-140) and depression with the Center for Epidemiological Study of Depression Scale (CESD). Cut-off ≥16 on the CES-D was used as an exclusion criterion. Subjects were also checked for metabolic risk factors and sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS: The group with gallstones had significantly more pronounced metabolic risk factors and higher prevalence of smoking and alcohol usage in comparison with the group without gallstones. This group also exhibited higher temperament dimension Harm avoidance (HA) and lower character dimension Self-directedness (SD). Metabolic variables differed based on character dimension Cooperativeness (CO), smoking based on temperament dimensions Novelty seeking (NS) and HA, and alcohol usage on dimension NS within the gallstones group. In the logistic regression, controlled for smoking, alcohol usage and metabolic variables, temperament dimension HA was shown to be a significant predictor of the presence of gallstones. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that personality may be associated with the presence of gallstones. Future longitudinal studies addressing the complex interplay of personality traits, psychological mechanisms and the associated behavioral, metabolic and neurobiological factors, are needed.

Non-suicidal self-injury among psychiatric outpatient adolescent offspring of Croatian posttraumatic stress disorder male war veterans: Prevalence and psychosocial correlates.

BACKGROUND: The children of male veterans with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at particularly high risk of emotional and behavioral problems. However, no studies have examined non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in this population of youth. AIMS: To determine the prevalence and psychosocial correlates of lifetime NSSI in a sample of psychiatric outpatient adolescent offspring of Croatian PTSD male veterans. METHOD: Consecutive outpatient adolescent offspring of Croatian male PTSD veterans, aged 12 to 18 years, were assessed on the Deliberate Self Harm Inventory, the Youth Self-Report, the Family Assessment Device, the Parental Bonding Instrument and the Demographics Questionnaire. RESULTS: Of the whole sample, 52.7% of adolescents reported NSSI at least once during their lifetime. Lifetime NSSI was significantly associated with internalizing symptoms (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 2.14; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04-4.42, p = .040), poor family functioning (adjusted OR = 6.54; 95% CI: 2.02-21.22, p = .002), lower maternal and paternal care (adjusted OR = 0.47; 95% CI: 0.40-0.56, p = .000 and adjusted OR = 0.82; 95% CI: 0.73-0.91, p = .000, respectively) and higher paternal control (adjusted OR = 1.84; 95% CI: 1.59-2.14, p = .000) in multivariate analysis. No association was found between lifetime NSSI and any of the socio-demographic variables. CONCLUSION: NSSI is a significant clinical problem in outpatient adolescent offspring of PTSD male veterans, which may be influenced by clinical and family factors. Interventions aimed at reducing internalizing symptoms and improving family functioning and parental behaviors are needed in the treatment of adolescent offspring of male PTSD veterans engaging in NSSI.