Personality characteristics of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

• The role of emotional and personality factors in either the onset or the course (or both) of rheumatoid arthritis remains con­ troversial and has received increased atten­ tion in the medical literature and discussions in recent years. Opinions have been expressed from time to time that emotional factors con­ tribute to the onset of rheumatoid arthritis and that the course of the disease often fluc­ tuates with the patient's mental state. The question that evolves is how can the role of this possible etiologic, if not pathoge­ netic. factor or factors be evaluated in an objective, reliable, scientific fashion. The utilization of standardized psychometric tests is one possible approach. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), described in the early 1940's\ is one of the most commonly used personality tests~ and has acquired a reliabil­ ity that has been documented through many reference populations'. The MMPI is self-administered and is essentially an analysis of what people say about themselves regarding the prevailing at­ titude of the person's thinking and his nor­ mative and deviant responses to everyday de­ mands of life and life stresses'. The test con­ sists of 566 standardized propositional state­ ments covering a broad range of both medi­ cally and psychologically related subjects; the statements are answered either "true" or "false". The test provides scores for 10 clini­ cal and 4 validity scales. The clinical scales are Hypochondriasis (Hs), Depression (D), Hysteria (Hy), Psychopathic Deviate (Pd),