Introverted women are more prone to illness

Muscular and skeletal complaints are difficult to diagnose. Many women end up as chronic sufferers in the social security office, and they become ‘cure chasers’, eternally pursuing doctors and treatment methods that can offer them a cure. Photo: Rune Petter Ness

Their personalities could be the reason why many women contract chronic coplaints of the head, neck and shoulders.

By Julie Maske

Every year, thousands of women suffer from headaches and pains in the neck and shoulders. Many have to go on sick leave over long periods of time, and they develop chronic problems, without anyone being able to find out what really is wrong with them. Recent research findings show that this group of women share certain personality characteristics that could be disease-producing in themselves. These women are frequently introverted, compliant, modest and sensitive.

Similar features
It is not new that women suffer from complaints that are hard to diagnose, but graduate student Monica Lillefjell from the Department of Sports Science at NTNU found this group of patients especially intriguing. In her work as an occupational therapist at the Friskgården treatment centre, she discovered that women who suffered from non-specific complaints of the head, neck and shoulders, had several things in common. She found their behaviour so interesting that she started her graduate studies within sports science in order to look for potential links between the complaints, the personalities and physical activity.

Characteristics
She followed 46 women between the ages of 27 to 60 for more than a year, measuring experienced pain in relation to personal characteristics.
– We found many characteristic differences between our group of patients and the control group from the population at large. The patients suffering from headaches and pains in the neck and shoulders scored low on – for example – impulsiveness, self-promotion, activity and positive feelings. At the same time, they scored high on compassion, Lillefjell explains.

Self-effacing
This shows that there are several pointers suggesting that self-effacing and self-sacrificing women fall ill more readily. These women allow other people’s well-being to go before their own needs, until they finally reach a point where the body says ‘no’. But because it is so hard to diagnose these women’s complaints they end up as regularly recurring names on the social-security lists. They become ‘cure chasers’, for ever searching for doctors and treatment methods able to provide them with a cure.
– This is a group of patients that must be taken seriously. If we can learn to understand the background for such unlocalized pains, and understand that the pains are connected to the personality, we can also design the right treatment, Lillefjell believes.
– It is hard to change your personality, but if you become aware of what your personality can give rise to, then it becomes possible to prevent a recurrence of chronic complaints.
Lillefjell is not surprised by the results of her research, and she wants to go on working with this set of problems in order to be able to present a full psychosocial presentation of the health problems experienced by this group. About 230 000 people are on a disability pension in Norway. About one third of these have ill-defined complaints in the muscular/skeletal system, and the cause of their pains is unknown.

Future challenge
Senior lecturer Geir Arild Espnes at NTNU’s Programme for Sports Science is Lillefjell’s supervisor. He is pleased that she is working on the psychosocial aspect of complaints in the head, neck and shoulders.
– These kinds of illness will become one of the challenges faced by the public health service in the future. Most other illnesses can be cured by means of medication, but complaints which are caused by interpersonal relationships are not prioritized by health-care organizations, says Espnes.

Contact: Monica Lillefjell
Tel: +47 90 77 65 70
Email: lillefje@stud.ntnu.no