By Science News Staff

Web edition: October 9, 2009
Print edition: October 24, 2009; Vol.176 #9 (p. 4)

Sons with ulcers have dominant mothers — Men who get duodenal ulcers early in life tend to have dominant mothers and submissive fathers. In a Medical Research Council report, a research team recorded that two-thirds of a group of men who got ulcers before they were 25 had mothers who were “dominant and controlling personalities and made the major decisions in their families.” These mothers were often “very conscientious women with a high sense of duty who were exceedingly houseproud and devoted to efficient routine.” … Among the various factors considered were the fathers of the ulcer sufferers. Many of them, said the scientists, “showed a characteristic steadiness and unassertiveness both at work and at home.”