Abstract
We used the Cornell Medical Index Health Questionnaire (CMI) and the Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) to collect medical and psychological data from 35 males (42-78 years of age; average 62.5) and 15 females (20-76 years of age; average 54.7) with malignant head and neck tumors immediately before hospitalization for treatment of the tumors at Mie University Hospital and just before discharge from the hospital. There were 10 nose and paranasal, 8 oral, 8 pharyngeal, 14 laryngeal, 6 thyroid gland tumors and 4 others. The period of hospitalization was 1 to 13 months, average 3.3 months.
1) Somatic and psychological complaints registered on the CMI were significantly lower after treatment (p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively, in the paired Wilcoxon test).
2) There were no changes in the patients' depressive and autonomic dysfunctioning scores evaluated by the CMI during the treatment period.
3) Analysis of the MPI revealed that the patients became slightly more introverted and significantly (p<0.01) less neurotic during the treatment period. However, the Lie scale score in the MPI was slightly higher after treatment, suggesting that patients tended to answer the questions more dishonestly after treatment in order to indicate greater improvement than had actually been achieved.
We conclude from the results that treatment of head and neck tumors, although it is sometimes painful and function-destructive, does lead to psychosomatic improvement as long as discharge from the hospital is possible.
