The relationship between personality traits and Life Expectancy in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis is an incurable and chronic disease of the central nervous system. The main purpose of this survey is to compare the character types and life expectancy of patients suffering from M.S as compared with the normal people. This survey was conducted using the Persian translation of NEO- FFI (NEO- Five Factor Inventory) and Herth Life Expectancy. Thirty nine people suffering from multiple sclerosis who were hospitalized in a asylum, were chosen. As a control group there were 39 healthy people who had no background of physical or mental diseases. These people were selected from educational centre scientific and the personnel of Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Campus. The healthy people were matched to control group according, to sex, age, marital status and education. To analyze the data, T tests were used. The results of the survey show that people suffering from multiple sclerosis were significantly different from healthy people in three factors, the five most important factors of characters, neuroticism, extraversion and openness. For life expectancy there was no significant difference between the two groups. persons afflicted by Multiple Sclerosis achieve higher marks due to the function of neuroticism compared with the safe people. They are also agreeableness in a lower state, due to the function of openness to experience compared with the safe ones and in a lower state compared with the safe persons.