Psychological structure of the patients with diabetic polyneuropathy

We multidisciplinary investigated 44 patients, who were admitted in the Department of Internal Medicine by the internist, neurologist and psychiatrist. The diagnosis of the polyneuropathy was given on the ground of the neurologists exploration. These patients were divided in two groups, both with 22 patients, experimental group with polyneuropathy and control group without polyneuropathy.

The psychological structure of these patients was followed continually by the semistructured interview with 32 items in connectian with the origin, course, treatment and psychological acception of diabetes. The assesment was also made with Zung Depression Scale, MMPI, and Analog Scale for Measuring Pain.

It was found that degree of the neurotic expression on MMPI, Zung scale and interview were in the direct proportion with the degree of the pain experience in the experimental and control group. Pain experience was found in 32% of the control group without polyneuropathy. Specially high scores were found on the depression, paranoid and social introversion scales. The objective assesment of polyneuropathy which was checked by the EMG methods, is not in the same ratio with the degree of the neurotic scores and pain experiance, what was in total contrast to our expectations.