Homeopathy. 2002 Apr; 91(2): 63-74.

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

Bell IR, Baldwin CM, Schwartz GE, Davidson JR.

Program in Integrative Medicine, The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson 85719, USA. ibell@u.arizona.edu

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.