How's Your Psychosoma?

One man's ulcers are another man's high blood pressure. Ever since Hippocrates, doctors have believed that certain kinds of people lean toward certain kinds of diseases. Many a wild guess has been made about body types (e.g., tall, thin people get tuberculosis; short, fat ones get apoplexy). Last week two Manhattan doctors came out with a new formula, to help predict every man's psychosomatic risks.

After 20 years of study, Drs. Eli Moschowitz and Mata B. Roudin wrote their formula down: "Constitution times psychologic trauma gives hyperkinesis which results in psychosomatic disease." Translation: mental or emotional shock makes certain organs overactive; the patient's personality determines which organs will be affected. The kind of personality, rather than the kind of shock, is the key. The same kind of shock (e.g., death of a relative or loss of a job) might give one type of man stomach ulcers, another, ulcerative colitis. In the current New York State Journal of Medicine, Drs. Moschowitz and Roudin wrapped up some classifications :

High Blood Pressure. Victims are prematurely old mentally, look to the future with anxiety, feel economic or social insecurity, "live intensely and desperately" to achieve their aims, are apt to be intolerant. They have no sense of make-believe, do not enjoy holidays. Since they exercise little and drink too much, they are likely to be overweight.

Hyperthyroidism types are touchy, temperamental, "respond to the environment like an Aeolian harp." They are emotionally sensitive, and can be upset by harsh words or looks. Their moods swing so wildly between ecstasy and depression that they may become insane; many are artists, poets, actors, writers. They are emotionally immature, often sexually cold.

Stomach Ulcers. Victims are aggressive, try to dominate other people, mold their environment to suit themselves. They are self-conscious and have strong likes and dislikes. Their eyes are sullen, their mouths firm; they have a "lean and hungry" look.

Intestinal Troubles. Victims of mucous colitis, spastic colitis, nonspecific ulcerative colitis are submissive, dependent, afraid of crowds. They are overneat, over-conscientious, "soft and weak-willed." Often they are badly adjusted sexually; attacks frequently occur during, or immediately after, honeymoons.

Cardiospasm. People who have abnormal difficulty in swallowing (because of a spasm of the esophagus) are about like those who become hyperthyroid, but a little less so.

Double Trouble. If a patient has two kinds of psychosomatic disease, it may be because he has overlapping personalities, or because one disease sets the other one in motion. Examples: high blood pressure often follows hyperthyroidism, hyperthyroidism often follows stomach ulcers; high blood pressure may follow or precede stomach ulcers.

One coldly comforting thought: Drs. Moschowitz and Roudin found only two cases of the same person with both hyperthyroidism and cardiospasm, only one with both high blood pressure and cardiospasm, none of cardiospasm plus colonic disorders, none of stomach ulcer plus nonspecific ulcerative colitis.

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