Homeopathic constitutional type questionnaire correlates of conventional psychological and physical health scales: individual difference characteristics of young adults

Iris R Bell; CM Baldwin; GE Schwartz; J RT Davidson

doi:10.1054/homp.2002.0003

Homeopathy, Table of Contents

Homeopathy 2002; 91(02): 63-74
DOI: 10.1054/homp.2002.0003

Original Paper

Homeopathic constitutional type questionnaire correlates of conventional psychological and physical health scales: individual difference characteristics of young adults

Authors

Iris R Bell

¹Program in Integrative Medicine, The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, 1650 E. Fort Lowell Road Suite 201, Tucson, AZ, 85719, USA
CM Baldwin

¹Program in Integrative Medicine, The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, 1650 E. Fort Lowell Road Suite 201, Tucson, AZ, 85719, USA
GE Schwartz

¹Program in Integrative Medicine, The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, 1650 E. Fort Lowell Road Suite 201, Tucson, AZ, 85719, USA
J RT Davidson

²Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, USA

Subject Editor:

Abstract

This study examined associations between scores for 19 different remedies on the constitutional type questionnaire (CTQ) and scores on standardized psychological and medical trait and state scales from health psychology research. Subjects were 104 young adult American college students (mean age 20 years; 67% female). Scales included the chemical intolerance index (CII) for environmental sensitivity, the NEO personality inventory, Marlowe–Crowne social desirability (MCSD) Scale for defensiveness, Harvard parental caring scale (HPCS) for perceived mother and father traits, Profile of Mood State (POMS) scale, Pennebaker symptom checklist (PSC), and a 3-item global health rating scale. The majority of CTQ constitutional type scores correlated significantly with greater NEO neuroticism, lower MCSD defensiveness, and greater psychological distress on the POMS subscales. NEO Extraversion and Openness subscales correlated with specific CTQ scores in directions consistent with clinical remedy pictures. CTQ Carcinosin differed from other remedies, showing no significant correlations with other scales. As hypothesized (a) persons high on CTQ scores for Carcinosin and low in parental caring (HPCS) had the highest symptom score; (b) those high on CTQ scores for Sulphur and low on HPCS had the poorest global health ratings; (c) individuals high on four different CTQ type scores (Carcinosin, Lachesis, Nux vomica, Sulphur) and high on environmental sensitivity (CII) exhibited the highest symptom scores. Taken together, the data offer additional validation of the CTQ and provide a foundation for studying interactions of constitutional type with both psychosocial and physicochemical environmental factors in homeopathic provers and patients.

Keywords

constitutional type questionnaire - personality traits - mood - symptom and health ratings - sensitization - oscillation - provings - medical outcomes

Full Text

References

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