Social Psychiatry, Vol. 41 No. 2, 2013.
Review article
DO PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE HAVE MORE OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE PERSONALITY FEATURES THAN THOSE OF HEALTHY OFFSPRING?
Rajna Knez
orcid.org/0000-0003-1278-4554
; Department of Psychiatry, Rijeka University Hospital Center, Rijeka, Croatia
Mladen Peršić
; Department of Pediatrics, Rijeka University Hospital Center, Rijeka, Croatia
Inge Vlašić -Cicvarić
; Department of Pediatrics, Rijeka University Hospital Center, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
Obsessive traits, neuroticism, as well as obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) may be notably found
among adult patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), while the results are not so clear among children with IBD.
However, according to published data, all children with IBD who also have a psychiatric diagnosis have at least one
parent with psychopathology. The majority of parents of children with IBD have a psychiatric diagnosis, predominantly
personality disorder. Children with parental psychopathology differ from children without parental psychopathology in
anxious and depressive features. Parents of children with “compulsive neurosis” or obsessive-compulsive disorder have
a significant level of anancastic characteristics or OCPD. In the light of published data, we hypothesize that OCPD will
be more prevalent in parents of children with IBD than in parents of healthy children. Findings regarding the presence of
personality disorder in parents of children with IBD may help in the process of developing and implementing treatment
interventions, which would include children with IBD, as well as their parents, in order to improve their relationship,
since pathological personality is linked with interpersonal impairment and this relationship can further be stressed by
the demands of IBD itself.
Keywords
children; parents; psychopathology; inflammatory bowel disease
Hrčak ID:
111275
URI
Publication date:
15.7.2013.
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