Evaluation of temperament and character traits of patients with severe acne.

Background: Acne vulgaris (AV) is an inflammatory disease of the pilosebaceous unit. The relationship between personality and acne development has not been fully explained, and to the best of our knowledge, there are a limited number of studies in the literature evaluating temperament and character traits of individuals with acne.

Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate temperament-character traits of individuals with severe acne and to compare them with healthy controls.

Patients/methods: This study was conducted on 51 patients who admitted to the dermatology outpatient clinic with complaint of acne and were diagnosed with severe AV and 47 healthy individuals, as a control group. All individuals included in the study participated voluntarily. The forms including sociodemographic data, clinical information, and Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) scores were applied to the patient and control groups.

Results: The scores of scales/subscales of exploration (NS1), persistence (P), responsibility (S1), purposefulness (S2), resourcefulness (S3), self-acceptance (S4), enlightened 2nd nature (S5), self-directedness (S), integrated conscience (C5), and cooperativeness (C) were statistically significantly lower, and the scores of scales/subscales of worry and pessimism (HA1), fear of uncertainty (HA2), shyness (HA3), fatiguability (HA4), and harm avoidance (HA) were statistically significantly higher in the patient group, in comparison with the control group.

Conclusions: When we evaluated the patients with severe acne in terms of temperament and character features, we concluded that individuals' feeling of discomfort about their appearance may cause them to be less sociable, more anxious, and to have low resourcefulness and virtues.