Panic-Fear: A personality dimension related to length of hospitalization in respiratory Illness

Abstract

In a prior study,¹ development of a 15-item Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Panic-Fear scale was described which relates to the reported frequency of Panic-Fear symptoms (e.g., feeling scared, panicky, worried, and frightened) on the Asthma Symptom Checklist (ASC). High MMPI Panic-Fear scale scores describe fearful, highly emotional individuals who profess to have their feelings hurt more easily than others, to feel helpless and to give up easily in the face of difficulty. High-scoring asthmatic patients were found to have been prescribed more intensive oral corticosteroid regimens at the time of discharge from a residential treatment facility months after testing. This relationship was not attributable to differences in pulmonary function.

In the present study, the results of the earlier research were expanded in several ways. First, the MMPI Panic-Fear scale was found to be related to an aspect of medical intractability, i.e., length of hospitalization, in two chronic respiratory illnesses with different pathogenic bases: asthma and tuberculosis. Second, the MMPI Panic-Fear scale was found to be independent of pulmonary function measurements in asthma, and of bacteriological type and drug resistance in tuberculosis. Finally, group norms for the MMPI Panic-Fear scale were presented both for asthmatic and tuberculosis inpatients. The results provide additional confirmation that the MMPI Panic-Fear scale is related to personality factors which influence medical intractability of chronic respiratory illness.