Hostile personality characteristics, dysthymic states and neurotic symptoms in urticaria, psoriasis and alopecia.

Three experimental groups of patients with urticaria, psoriasis and alopecia were compared for hostile personality characteristics, states of anxiety and depression, neurotic syndromes and stress with a control group of patients with other skin diseases. The patients from each experimental group were found to be less dominant, more intropunitive, more extrapunitive and more neurotic than the control group. The following neurotic syndromes differentiated the experimental groups: non-specific anxiety states in urticaria patients; neurotic depression in the patients with alopecia, and a variety of neurotic syndromes in the psoriasis patients. All experimental groups scored significantly higher than the controls in stress experienced during the year preceding the onset or the exacerbation of the illness.