It has often been suggested that mood and personality predispose to peptic ulcer, but little
prospective evidence exists. We used longitudinal data from the Alameda County Study to
seek associations of psychological characteristics with later ulcer development, taking into
account the possible confounding or mediating roles of nonpsychological factors. Among
4,595 Alameda County Study subjects ulcer-free in 1965, we studied five baseline
psychological measures (depression, hostility, ego resiliency, social alienation or anomy …