Illness behaviour, personality traits, anxiety, and depression in patients with Menière's disease.

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate illness behaviour, personality traits, anxiety and depression in patients with Menière's disease.

Design: A prospective study of patients and review of the literature is presented.

Methods: Fifty patients presenting to the ENT department of the Padua University were studied using the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ), Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale.

Results: Mean scores were found to be higher than normal for neuroticism with a stronger psychological perception of disease and a lower level of affective inhibition. Cluster analysis of the IBQ scores identified a subgroup of Meniere's patients with normal scores and another with severe psychological distress associated with high levels of neuroticism and psychoticism in the EPI and an abnormal illness behaviour: these were older patients with a longer history of Menière's disease and more hospital stays.

Conclusion: Our results indicate the possibility of distinguishing those patients whose personality traits could facilitate the development of abnormal illness behaviour and psychological symptoms in relation to Menière's disease. Analysis of the data suggests that there is no specific link between such psychological aspects and the clinical disease.