소화성궤양 환자들의 스트레스지각

Stress Perception of Patients with Peptic Ulcer

Stress perception was investigated in 98 outpatient with peptic ulcer. 63% were found to be psychosomatic patients, whose stress perception was higher than that o f nonpsychosomatic patients. The proportion of psychosomatic disorder in patients with duodenal ulcer was higher than in those with gastric ulcer. This indicates that patients with duodenal ulcer were more susceptible to psychological stressors than patients with gastric ulcer. However, there was no significant difference in stress perception and frequency of stressors .during one-year period between both the groups of patients. Severity of current symptoms correlated positively with stress perception and frequency of stressors, whereas the size of ulcer did not correlate with them. This finding suggests that factors other than stress are more likely to be involved in ulcer formation, although stress is directly associated with subjective change. Female, younger age, higher education, shorter duration of illness, severe symptom, younger presence of stressors at either onset or aggravation of illness were found to be variables influencing stress perception and frequency of stressors. Thus, members of treatment team should consider these variables in therapeutic approach for patients with peptic ulcer.