The relationship of neuroticism and extraversion to symptoms of anxiety and depression in the general population

Reliability and validity of the unhelpful thoughts and beliefs scale for Persian-speaking adults who stutter (UTBAS-P): A cross-cultural examination of social anxiety in people who stutter

BACKGROUND AND AIM

An increasing body of research indicates that many adults who stutter (AWS) experience anxiety in social and verbal situations. The Unhelpful Thoughts and Beliefs about Stuttering (UTBAS) scales were developed to assess speech-related anxiety and negative cognitions associated with stuttering. This study aimed to translate the UTBAS into Persian, investigate its psychometric properties for Persian-speaking AWS, and compare the results with previously published UTBAS scores across various cultures.

METHOD

The UTBAS scales were translated into Persian according to the protocols of the International Quality of Life Assessment Project and the World Health Organization. Sixty-two adults with developmental stuttering, aged between 18 and 51 years, participated in this study. The psychometric properties of UTBAS-P were investigated using similar measures to those used in previous studies where valid and reliable versions were available. Additionally, UTBAS-P scores were compared to UTBAS scores previously reported for Australian, Japanese, and Turkish participants.

RESULTS

The results showed that UTBAS-P had an acceptable face, content, and construct validity. It was significantly correlated with other anxiety-related measures. Additionally, its low and negative correlations with unrelated constructs, such as the NEO-PI-R domains of openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, confirmed its divergent validity. Regarding reliability, the significant test-retest reliability score (Pearson r = 0.87, p < 0.001) confirmed the stability of UTBAS-P scores over time, and its internal consistency was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha of 0.99. Similarities and differences were found between participants' UTBAS scores across different cultures.

CONCLUSION

All four currently translated versions of the UTBAS have demonstrated high levels of validity and reliability, showing strong correlations with well-known anxiety measures. These findings suggest that the UTBAS has potential for use both clinically and in cross-cultural studies.

Social support, temperament and previous prenatal loss interact to predict depression and anxiety during pregnancy

BACKGROUND

Pregnancy is considered a complex period in a woman's life due to the changes that occur at different levels, which increase her vulnerability to developing psychological symptoms. A woman's temperament and perceived social support may play important roles in the development of such symptomatology. The main objective of the present work was to evaluate whether social support is an effective coping resource against the development of symptoms of depression and anxiety, especially among women with certain personality types, while also considering previous prenatal losses.

METHODS

The participants were 534 pregnant women in their 26th week of gestation. They completed measures related to social support, temperament (i.e. neuroticism and extraversion) and symptoms of depression and anxiety and informed us of any previous prenatal losses.

RESULTS

The association between social support and depression was negative only for women who scored high on neuroticism. Extraversion did not interact with social support to predict depression or anxiety. Additionally, temperament interacted with previous prenatal losses, playing a relevant role in the development of anxiety symptoms. Previous losses had a greater effect on women who scored low in extraversion or high in neuroticism. Finally, a triple interaction between temperament, social support and previous prenatal loss emerged, indicating that previous prenatal loss was related to anxiety in women with low social support and low extraversion.

CONCLUSION

Pregnant women, especially those who have suffered a previous prenatal loss and score high in neuroticism or low in extraversion, may benefit from interventions that enhance social support.

The Effect of Anxiety and Nutritional Habits on the Body Distortion of Athletes

Background: Anxiety disorders have been rising globally, particularly among adolescents and women. However, the relationship between diet, psychological traits, and anxiety levels in athletes remains underexplored. Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the nutritional and psychological differences between athletes with varying anxiety levels, hypothesizing that higher anxiety correlates with unhealthier dietary habits, greater body distortion, and less adaptive psychological profiles. Methods: A total of 58 athletes (23 women, 35 men), aged 18 to 45 years (mean age = 30.2 years), participated in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected using validated online questionnaires, including the Big Five Inventory, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), UCLA Loneliness Scale, and Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), as well as surveys assessing nutritional habits and physical activity levels. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS (v24.0), with independent t-tests to compare differences between higher and lower anxiety groups (p < 0.05). Results: It has beenindicated that higher anxiety was associated with greater neuroticism, lower psychological flexibility, and higher eating disorder symptomatology, while better sleep quality and psychological profiles correlated with lower anxiety levels. Additionally, athletes who cooked their own meals exhibited higher anxiety, whereas greater water intake and whole grain consumption were linked to lower anxiety. More frequent and intense training, particularly weight training, was also associated with reduced anxiety. Conclusion: This study concludes that anxiety in athletes is influenced by multiple lifestyle factors, including sleep quality, dietary habits, psychological traits, and exercise patterns. These findings emphasize the need for holistic approaches integrating nutrition, psychological interventions, and structured physical training to manage anxiety in athletes.

Actor-Partner Effects of Personality Traits and Psychological Flexibility on Psychological Distress Among Couples Coping with Cancer

In this study, we applied the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) to explore the associations between personality traits (Big Five) and psychological flexibility, on the one hand, and depression and anxiety, on the other hand, among patients with cancer and their spouses. Method: Forty-six patient-spouse dyads (N = 92) completed the anxiety and depression scales from the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS), the ten-item personality inventory (TIPI), and the psychological flexibility scale (AAQ-2). Multilevel APIM models, adjusted for multiple testing, showed that neuroticism and psychological flexibility had actor effects on patients' depression and anxiety. Furthermore, neuroticism had actor effects on spouses' depression and anxiety, and agreeableness had actor effects on spouses' anxiety. In addition, patients' psychological flexibility and neuroticism had partner effects on spouses' depression. Conclusion: Being psychologically flexible but emotionally stable is important for one's own and one's partner's psychological outcomes in the context of dyadic coping with cancer. Implications include informing couples' therapists in the context of psycho-oncology on the importance of considering personality traits and improving psychological flexibility.

The relationship between neuroticism as a personality trait and mindfulness skills: a scoping review

Introduction

In recent decades, researchers have assessed the relationship between mindfulness and personality traits, including neuroticism, a known target in mental health associated with the development of mental health disorders and physical illnesses. The main aim of mindfulness practice is to help individuals develop the ability to regulate and accept their experiences, emotions, and thoughts. Therefore, it could be suggested that mindfulness may be useful in reducing the expression and negative experience of neuroticism. The aim of our review was to assess the relationship between neuroticism and mindfulness.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review of the literature in December 2023, using the databases PubMed and PsycINFO.

Results

Forty-nine studies were included in the review, with four common themes identified: (i) mental health, (ii) cognitive outcomes, (iii) physiological symptoms, and (iv) mindfulness-based interventions. Across most of the studies, mindfulness negatively correlated with neuroticism, supporting the idea that mindfulness may be useful in reducing neuroticism and its negative effects on mental and physical health.

Discussion

While several limitations were identified, the overall results are promising. Future research in this area should focus on overcoming the current limitations to provide a better understanding of the relationship between mindfulness and neuroticism.

Mediating effect of coping dispositions on the association between trauma and gastrointestinal symptoms

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are two gastrointestinal (GI) conditions known to be exacerbated by traumatic life experiences. One way in which these experiences might influence individuals' susceptibility to GI pathology, is by reducing their ability to deal with adversities effectively and predisposing them to passive coping styles that leave them vulnerable to the somatic effects of trauma. To validate this hypothesis, the present cross-sectional study assessed the mediating effect of coping dispositions on the association between trauma and GI disease activity in an adult sample of 189 bowel patients (94 IBD, 95 IBS) and 92 controls. Results confirmed that GI patients exhibit significantly more cumulative trauma, pervasive feelings of uncontrollability and passive coping strategies than controls. Moreover, the use of passive coping styles was positively associated with the accumulation of trauma and the expression of GI symptoms. Using hierarchical regression and mediation analyses, we found support for the sequential model postulating passive coping styles as (partial) mediators of trauma-induced (GI) disease manifestations. Specifically, out of all coping styles associated with cumulative trauma, behavioural disengagement most powerfully mediated the effect of trauma on GI symptom severity, accounting for 12% (IBD) to 14% (IBS) of its total effect. A somewhat smaller mediating role was observed for social support coping, the reduced reliance on which explained 7% (IBS) to 10% (IBD) of trauma's total effect. Finally, neuroticism acted as a channel through which past traumatization affected subjects' proneness to behavioural disengagement and, consequently, their GI disease activity.

Personality traits as predictors of depression across the lifespan

BACKGROUND

Depression is a major public health concern. A barrier for research has been the heterogeneous nature of depression, complicated by the categorical diagnosis of depression which is based on a cluster of symptoms, each with its own etiology. To address the multifactorial etiology of depression and its high comorbidity with anxiety, we aimed to examine the relations between personality traits, diverse behavioral, cognitive and physical measures, and depression and anxiety over the lifespan.

METHOD

Our sample was drawn from the NKI-RS, a community-based lifespan sample (N = 1494 participants aged 6 to 85). Analyses included multivariate approach and general linear models for group comparisons and dimensional analyses, respectively. A machine learning model was trained to predict depression using many factors including personality traits.

RESULTS

Depression and anxiety were both characterized by increased neuroticism and introversion, but did not differ between themselves. Comorbidity had an additive effect on personality vulnerability. Dimensionally, depression was only associated with personality in adolescence, where it was positively correlated with neuroticism, and negatively correlated with extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The relationship between anxiety and personality changed over time, with neuroticism and conscientiousness being the most salient traits. Our machine learning model predicted depression with 70 % accuracy with neuroticism and extraversion contributing most.

LIMITATIONS

Due to the cross-sectional design, conclusions cannot be drawn about causal relationships between personality and depression.

CONCLUSION

These results underscore the impact of personality on depressive disorders and provide novel insights on how personality contributes to depression across the lifespan.

Level of Anxiety Shows a Positive Correlation With the Frequency of Acute Cystitis Recurrence in Women

PURPOSE

Previous studies have simply confirmed recurrence of acute cystitis negatively affects a patient's psychological state. This study was performed to assess the impact of the recurrence of urinary tract infections on anxiety and depression and further assess whether there is a correlation between the number of recurrences and the degree of anxiety and depression.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study enrolled patients with recurrent cystitis who visited a tertiary care center between April 2018 and June 2022. For eligible patients, depression and anxiety were assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Among the clinical characteristics, factors that independently affected the degree of depression and anxiety were analyzed. Additionally, the relationship between the level of anxiety, depression, and the number of recurrent cystitis was assessed.

RESULTS

A total of 112 female patients with recurrent cystitis were enrolled in this study. The proportion of patients with depression (moderate, 8%; severe, 0%) was relatively low compared with that of patients with anxiety (moderate, 22.3%; severe, 68.8%). Multivariate regression analysis showed that more recurrent episodes were significantly associated with higher anxiety scores (P<0.001). It was confirmed that longer disease duration is associated with higher depression scores (P=0.031). Additionally, there was a positive correlation between the number of recurrences and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scores (r=0.362, P<0.001 and r=0.248, P=0.009, respectively).

CONCLUSION

Our study reveals that recurrent cystitis notably increases patients' anxiety, correlating with the frequency of recurrences. Disease duration is also linked to depression. These findings emphasize the importance of preventing urinary tract infection recurrences to reduce psychological complications. To reinforce these results, larger cohort studies are necessary.

COVID-19 stressful life events and mental health: Personality and coping styles as moderators

OBJECTIVE

To examine the role of COVID-19-specific stressful life events (SLE) in predicting depression, anxiety, and life satisfaction, and if personality traits (extraversion and neuroticism), and coping styles (problem-focused coping and avoidance coping) moderated these relations.

PARTICIPANTS

Data were collected from 371 college students (Mage = 20.59; SDage = 2.58) from one large university of the Mid-Atlantic region in the U.S.

METHODS

Participants completed an online survey measuring COVID-19 related stressful life events (adapted from a tool developed to measure stressful life events during the SARS pandemic; Costa et al., 2001; Main et al., 2011), personality (the Mini-Markers; Saucier, 1994), coping styles (by using a measure developed by Aldrige-Gerry et al., 2011), depression (PHQ-9; Kroenke et al., 2011), anxiety (GAD-7; Spitzer et al., 2006), and life satisfaction (Student's Life Satisfaction Scale, Huebner, 1996) between March 27th and April 27th, 2020.

RESULTS

Path analysis results showed that extraversion and avoidance coping style moderated the effects of SLE on depression and anxiety symptoms; neuroticism and avoidance coping style moderated the relation between SLE and life satisfaction. The moderation results also differed by gender.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic had deleterious effects on college students' mental health, where extraversion emerged as a protective factor, while neuroticism and avoidance coping style were risk factors. These findings underscore the importance of paying special attention to college students' mental health needs and promoting appropriate coping strategies in the light of the current pandemic.

Identifying tripartite relationship among cortical thickness, neuroticism, and mood and anxiety disorders

The number of young adults seeking help for emotional distress, subsyndromal-syndromal mood/anxiety symptoms, including those associated with neuroticism, is rising and can be an early manifestation of mood/anxiety disorders. Identification of gray matter (GM) thickness alterations and their relationship with neuroticism and mood/anxiety symptoms can aid in earlier diagnosis and prevention of risk for future mood and anxiety disorders. In a transdiagnostic sample of young adults (n = 252;177 females; age 21.7 ± 2), Hypothesis (H) 1:regularized regression followed by multiple regression examined relationships among GM cortical thickness and clinician-rated depression, anxiety, and mania/hypomania; H2:the neuroticism factor and its subfactors as measured by NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) were tested as mediators. Analyses revealed positive relationships between left parsopercularis thickness and depression (B = 4.87, p = 0.002), anxiety (B = 4.68, p = 0.002), mania/hypomania (B = 6.08, p ≤ 0.001); negative relationships between left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) thickness and depression (B = - 5.64, p ≤ 0.001), anxiety (B = - 6.77, p ≤ 0.001), mania/hypomania (B = - 6.47, p ≤ 0.001); and positive relationships between left isthmus cingulate thickness (B = 2.84, p = 0.011), and anxiety. NEO anger/hostility mediated the relationship between left ITG thickness and mania/hypomania; NEO vulnerability mediated the relationship between left ITG thickness and depression. Examining the interrelationships among cortical thickness, neuroticism and mood and anxiety symptoms enriches the potential for identifying markers conferring risk for mood and anxiety disorders and can provide targets for personalized intervention strategies for these disorders.

Neurophysiological responses to emotional faces predict dynamic fluctuations in affect in adolescents

The ability to accurately identify and interpret others' emotions is critical for social and emotional functioning during adolescence. Indeed, previous research has identified that laboratory-based indices of facial emotion recognition and engagement with emotional faces predict adolescent mood states. Whether socioemotional information processing relates to real-world affective dynamics using an ecologically sensitive approach, however, has rarely been assessed. In the present study, adolescents (N = 62; ages 13-18) completed a Facial Recognition Task, including happy, angry, and sad stimuli, while EEG data were acquired. Participants also provided ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data probing their current level of happiness, anger, and sadness for 1-week, resulting in indices of emotion (mean-level, inertia, instability). Analyses focused on relations between (1) accuracy for and (2) prolonged engagement with (LPP) emotional faces and EMA-reported emotions. Greater prolonged engagement with happy faces was related to less resistance to changes in happiness (i.e., less happiness inertia), whereas greater prolonged engagement with angry faces associated with more resistance to changes in anger (i.e., greater anger inertia). Results suggest that socioemotional processes captured by laboratory measures have real-world implications for adolescent affective states and highlight potentially actionable targets for novel treatment approaches (e.g., just-in-time interventions). Future studies should continue to assess relations among socioemotional informational processes and dynamic fluctuations in adolescent affective states.

Can flow proneness be protective against mental and cardiovascular health problems? A genetically informed prospective cohort study

Flow is a phenomenon where one experiences optimal challenge, marked by an intense, effortless, and rewarding concentration on a task. Past research shows that flow proneness is associated with good mental and cardiovascular health. However, this research has been primarily cross-sectional, based on self-report data, and has not controlled for potential confounding effects of neuroticism. In a large, longitudinal twin sample (N = 9361), we used nationwide patient registry data to test whether flow proneness predicted registry-based diagnoses of depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, stress-related disorders, or cardiovascular diseases. We used survival analyses taking time to diagnosis into account to test if (a) there is a relationship between flow proneness and health diagnoses over time, (b) neuroticism confounds this relationship, and (c) the relationship remains present within discordant monozygotic twin pairs (N = 952), thereby controlling for genetic and shared environmental confounding. Individuals with higher flow proneness had a decreased risk of receiving diagnoses for depression (16%; CI [14%, 18%]), anxiety (16%; CI [13%, 18%]), schizophrenia (15%; CI [4%, 25%]), bipolar (12%; CI [6%, 18%]), stress-related (9%; CI [9%, 12%]), and cardiovascular disorders (4%; CI [1%, 8%]). When controlling for neuroticism, higher flow proneness still decreased the risk of depression (6%; CI [3%, 9%]) and anxiety diagnoses (5%; CI [1%, 8%]). Monozygotic twins who experienced more flow than their co-twin had a lower risk for depression (16%; CI [5%, 26%]) and anxiety (13%; CI [1%, 24%]), though only the association with depression remained significant when also controlling for neuroticism (13%; CI [1%, 24%]). Findings are in line with a causal protective role of flow experiences on depression and potentially anxiety and highlight that neuroticism and familial factors are notable confounding factors in observed associations between flow proneness and health outcomes.

Mapping Brain Structure Variability in Chronic Pain: The Role of Widespreadness and Pain Type and Its Mediating Relationship With Suicide Attempt

BACKGROUND

Chronic pain affects nearly 20% of the U.S.

POPULATION

It is a leading cause of disability globally and is associated with a heightened risk for suicide. The role of the central nervous system in the perception and maintenance of chronic pain has recently been accepted, but specific brain circuitries involved have yet to be mapped across pain types in a large-scale study.

METHODS

We used data from the UK Biobank (N = 21,968) to investigate brain structural alterations in individuals reporting chronic pain compared with pain-free control participants and their mediating effect on history of suicide attempt.

RESULTS

Chronic pain and, more notably, chronic multisite pain was associated with, on average, lower surface area throughout the cortex after adjusting for demographic, clinical, and neuropsychiatric confounds. Only participants with abdominal pain showed lower subcortical volumes, including the amygdala and brainstem, and lower cerebellum volumes. Participants with chronic headaches showed a widespread thicker cortex compared with control participants. Mediation analyses revealed that precuneus thickness mediated the relationship of chronic multisite pain and history of suicide attempt. Mediating effects were also identified specific to localized pain, with the strongest effect being amygdala volume in individuals with chronic abdominal pain.

CONCLUSIONS

Results support a widespread effect of chronic pain on brain structure and distinct brain structures underlying chronic musculoskeletal pain, visceral pain, and headaches. Mediation effects of regions in the extended ventromedial prefrontal cortex subsystem suggest that exacerbated negative internal states, negative self-referencing, and impairments in future planning may underlie suicidal behaviors in individuals with chronic pain.

Coronavirus Anxiety, COVID Anxiety Syndrome and Mental Health: A Test Among Six Countries During March 2021

The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health outcomes is widely documented. Specifically, individuals experiencing greater degrees of severity in coronavirus anxiety have demonstrated higher levels of generalized anxiety, depression and psychological distress. Yet the pathways in which coronavirus anxiety confers vulnerability are not well known. The present investigation sought to address this gap in the scientific literature by testing the indirect effect of the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome, which centres on the function of detecting and managing the environmental threat of virus exposure and its sequalae. Data were collected during the height of the pandemic (March 2021) and included 5297 adults across six countries. Structural equation modelling techniques revealed that the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome evidenced a statistically significant indirect effect between coronavirus anxiety and generalized anxiety, depression and work/social adjustment. Overall, results suggest there could be public health merit to targeting anxiety related to virus exposure to improve behavioural health for those who are struggling with excessive fear and worry.

Personality and Well-Being Across and Within Relationship Status

Trends of increasing singlehood call for understanding of well-being correlates across and within relationship status. While personality is a major predictor of well-being, descriptive trait profiles of singles have not been developed. In the present research (N = 1,811; 53% men; Mage = 29), single and partnered individuals completed measures of personality and well-being, including life, relationship status, and sexual satisfaction. Results revealed effects whereby single individuals were lower in extraversion and conscientiousness but higher in neuroticism. Additional facet analyses showed that singles were lower across all extraversion facets, but specifically lower in productiveness (conscientiousness facet) and higher in depression (neuroticism facet). Largely, personality was associated with well-being similarly for single and partnered people. Furthermore, relationship status accounted for variance in well-being above and beyond personality traits. Our results suggest individual differences in personality could play an important role in understanding well-being's link with relationship status.

Personal Growth and Motto Goals: Strengthening Emotion Regulation Ability via Affirmatory Metaphors Coaching

Interventions can foster personal growth. However, our understanding of the specific mechanisms for change and the types of interventions driving this growth process remains limited. In this study, we focused on emotion regulation ability as a potential mechanism. We examined the effects of an affirmation coaching intervention on changes in emotion regulation ability, an important facet of personality. In this coaching intervention, participants created a personal mantra/goal derived from a selected image and positive associations linked to this image (motto goals). This is considered to enhance emotion regulation abilities by internalizing self-stabilizing value. We assigned sixty-six participants to either this affirmation coaching intervention or one of two control coaching interventions: specific-goal versus indulgence coaching. Before and after each intervention, participants completed questionnaires. Only the affirmation coaching intervention significantly increased in adaptive aspects of personality. Notably, the affirmation coaching intervention increased emotion regulation ability, and this effect persisted even when controlling for extraversion and neuroticism. Furthermore, exploratory analysis showed that extraversion increased following the affirmation coaching, while neuroticism remained unchanged. Our results suggest that emotion regulation ability might be the key factor in personality growth. It could be more malleable and/or respond more strongly to short-term coaching, compared to neuroticism. Thus, the malleability of personality traits may not be an all-or-nothing phenomenon; rather, it could depend on the facet of emotion regulation ability. We discuss potential mechanisms of personality growth, distinguishing between emotion regulation and emotion sensitivity.

Distress Symptoms of Old Age and Mild Cognitive Impairment are Two Distinct Dimensions in Older Adults Without Major Depression

Background

Studies in old adults showed bidirectional interconnections between amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and affective symptoms and that adverse childhood experiences (ACE) may affect both factors. Nevertheless, these associations may be confined to older adults with clinical depression.

Aim

To delineate the relationship between clinical symptoms of aMCI and affective symptoms in older adults without major depression (MDD) or dysfunctions in activities of daily living (ADL).

Methods

This case-control study recruited 61 participants with aMCI (diagnosed using Petersen's criteria) and 59 older adults without aMCI and excluded subjects with MDD and ADL dysfunctions.

Results

We uncovered 2 distinct dimensions, namely distress symptoms of old age (DSOA), comprising affective symptoms, perceived stress and neuroticism, and mild cognitive dysfunctions, comprising episodic memory test scores, the total Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores. A large part of the variance (37.9%) in DSOA scores was explained by ACE, negative life events (health and financial problems), a subjective feeling of cognitive decline, and education (all positively). ACE and NLE have a highly significant impact on the DSOA score and are not associated with aMCI or its severity. Cluster analysis showed that the diagnosis of aMCI is overinclusive because some subjects with DSOA symptoms may be incorrectly classified as aMCI.

Conclusion

The clinical impact is that clinicians should carefully screen older adults for DSOA after excluding MDD. DSOA might be misinterpreted as aMCI.

Pre-scan state anxiety is associated with greater right amygdala-hippocampal response to fearful versus happy faces among trait-anxious Latina girls

BACKGROUND

Unfamiliarity with academic research may contribute to higher levels of anticipatory state anxiety about affective neuroimaging tasks. Children with high trait anxiety display differences in brain response to fearful facial affect compared to non-anxious youth, but little is known about the influence of state anxiety on this association. Because reduced engagement in scientific research and greater mistrust among minoritized groups may lead to systematic differences in pre-scan state anxiety, it is crucial to understand the neural correlates of state anxiety during emotion processing so as to disambiguate sources of individual differences.

METHODS

The present study probed the interactive effects of pre-scan state anxiety, trait anxiety, and emotional valence (fearful vs. happy faces) on neural activation during implicit emotion processing in a community sample of 46 preadolescent Latina girls (8-13 years).

RESULTS

Among girls with mean and high levels of trait anxiety, pre-scan state anxiety was associated with greater right amygdala-hippocampal and left inferior parietal lobe response to fearful faces relative to happy faces.

CONCLUSIONS

Anticipatory state anxiety in the scanning context may cause children with moderate and high trait anxiety to be hypervigilant to threats, further compounding the effects of trait anxiety. Neuroimaging researchers should control for state anxiety so that systematic differences in brain activation resulting from MRI apprehension are not misleadingly attributed to demographic or environmental characteristics.

Personality characteristics, not clinical symptoms, are associated with anhedonia in a community sample: A preliminary investigation

Anhedonia is a salient transdiagnostic psychiatric symptom associated with increased illness severity and chronicity. Anhedonia is also present to varying degrees in non-clinical cohorts. Here, we sought to examine factors influencing expression of anhedonia. Participants (N = 335) were recruited through the Nathan Kline Institute-Rockland Sample, an initiative to deeply phenotype a large community sample across the lifespan. Utilizing a data-driven approach, we evaluated associations between anhedonia severity, indexed by Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS), and 20 physical, developmental, and clinical measures, including Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, NEO Five-Factor Inventory-3 (NEO-FFI-3), BMI, Hemoglobin A1C, and demography. Using a bootstrapped AIC-based backward selection algorithm, seven variables were retained in the final model: NEO-FFI-3 agreeableness, extraversion, and openness to experience; BMI; sex; ethnicity; and race. Though median SHAPS scores were greater in participants with psychiatric diagnoses (18.5) than those without (17.0) (U = 12238.5, z = 2.473, p = 0.013), diagnosis and symptom measures were not retained as significant predictors in the final robust linear model. Participants scoring higher on agreeableness, extraversion, and openness to experience reported significantly lower anhedonia. These results demonstrate personality as a mild-to-moderate but significant driver of differences in experiencing pleasure in a community sample.

Association of Self-Reported Psychological Stress with Cognitive Decline: A Systematic Review

Psychological stress is a potential modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline. However, the extent to which self-reported psychological stress is differentially associated with decline in specific cognitive domains remains unclear. Differences may be due to heterogeneity in the aspects of psychological stress investigated, for example, neuroticism (which is linked to vulnerability to stress), perceived stress, or exposure to stressful life events. This review aims to establish the associations between these aspects of self-reported psychological stress and cognitive decline. PsychINFO, Embase and MEDLINE were searched from database inception to September 2021. Studies were included if they were observational, prospective, and if they investigated the association between self-reported psychological stress and cognitive decline in adults with a minimum mean age of 40 years at baseline. Thirty studies satisfied the inclusion criteria, with most examining neuroticism (n = 17) as a predictor of cognitive decline. Fewer examined perceived stress (n = 7) or stressful life events (n = 6). There was evidence of an association between neuroticism and cognitive decline, particularly in the domain of memory. Similarly, across studies, perceived stress was also associated with memory decline. Research investigating the relationship between stressful life events and cognitive decline had fewer outcomes to interpret. Overall, the findings highlight that memory may be particularly susceptible to high levels of neuroticism and perceived stress. We identified a lack of research into some cognitive domains, such as executive function, which should be addressed by future studies.

Association of polygenic scores for depression and neuroticism with perceived stress in daily life during a long-lasting stress period

Genetic factors contribute significantly to interindividual differences in the susceptibility to stress-related disorders. As stress can also be conceptualized as environmental exposure, controlled gene-environment interaction (GxE) studies with an in-depth phenotyping may help to unravel mechanisms underlying the interplay between genetic factors and stress. In a prospective-longitudinal quasi-experimental study, we investigated whether polygenic scores (PGS) for depression (DEP-PGS) and neuroticism (NEU-PGS), respectively, were associated with responses to chronic stress in daily life. We examined law students (n = 432) over 13 months. Participants in the stress group experienced a long-lasting stress phase, namely the preparation for the first state examination for law students. The control group consisted of law students without particular stress exposure. In the present manuscript, we analyzed perceived stress levels assessed at high frequency and in an ecologically valid manner by ambulatory assessments as well as depression symptoms and two parameters of the cortisol awakening response. The latter was only assessed in a subsample (n = 196). No associations between the DEP-PGS and stress-related variables were found. However, for the NEU-PGS we found a significant GxE effect. Only in individuals experiencing academic stress a higher PGS for neuroticism predicted stronger increases of perceived stress levels until the exam. At baseline, a higher NEU-PGS was associated with higher perceived stress levels in both groups. Despite the small sample size, we provide preliminary evidence that the genetic disposition for neuroticism is associated with stress level increases in daily life during a long-lasting stress period.

Premorbid Psychological Factors Associated with Long-Term Postoperative Headache after Microsurgery in Vestibular Schwannoma-A Retrospective Pilot Study

Associations between premorbid psychological factors and postoperative headache (POH) after microsurgical treatment via the retrosigmoid approach for vestibular schwannoma (VS) were investigated in this retrospective single-center study. A total of 101 VS patients completed the Rostock headache questionnaire (RoKoKo), the hospital and anxiety scale (HADS-D), and the screening for somatoform disorders (SOMS-2), all of which were used as short self-assessed questionnaires. Fifty-four patients with POH were compared with 47 non-POH patients in terms of premorbid psychological factors, somatization tendencies, and psychological burden using the chi2-test and Mann-Whitney U-test. Regression analyses were conducted to assess the weighted contribution of psychological and procedural factors to POH. In individuals with POH, mental ailments, preexisting headaches, premorbid chronic pain syndromes, and higher somatization tendencies were found to be significantly more common. POH was predicted by the number of premorbid psychosomatic symptoms, preexisting mental ailments, and premorbid chronic pain syndromes. Depression and anxiety were predicted by low emotional stability. Additionally, the number of premorbid psychosomatic symptoms predicted depression, anxiety, and overall psychological burden. It was observed that the reported symptoms of headache might fit into the classification of chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) rather than being classified as secondary headaches after craniotomy. Premorbid psychological factors were found to play an important role in the emergence of POH in VS, particularly after microsurgery via the retrosigmoid approach. Therefore, it is suggested that psychological screening be incorporated into the treatment process.

Personality, dietary identity, mental and sleep health in vegans and vegetarians: A preliminary cross-sectional study

Background and Aims

Plant-based diets have gained popularity over the past decade. However, research regarding mental and sleep health benefits of following plant-based diets are conflicting. As there are associations between mental/sleep health and various personality traits, and personality may differ between individuals who follow different diets, in this preliminary study, we examined the associations between mental and sleep health and (i) personality and (ii) dietary identity in individuals who follow vegan and vegetarian diets.

Methods

Cross-sectional data on sociodemographic, personality traits, dietarian identity, overall mental health, depression, anxiety, stress, and sleep quality were collected from 57 vegan/vegetarian participants between the ages of 18-40.

Results

After controlling for various sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, linear regression models revealed that (i) higher dietarian private regard was a significant predictor of better overall mental health, (ii) lower levels of extraversion and higher levels of empathy predicted depression, (iii) higher levels of neuroticism and empathy predicted anxiety, (iv) higher levels of neuroticism, dietarian centrality, and neuroticism × centrality predicted stress, (v) higher levels of conscientiousness, lower levels of dietarian centrality, but higher levels of personal motivation and dietary strictness, as well as conscientiousness × centrality, conscientiousness × personal motivation, and conscientiousness × strictness predicted better sleep quality.

Conclusions

These preliminary findings suggest that not only personality traits, but also dietary identity was indeed related to mental and sleep health in individuals who follow plant-based diets.

Associations between COVID-19-related changes in the psychosocial work environment and mental health

BACKGROUND

Individuals' lives have been substantially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to describe changes in psychosocial work environment and mental health and to investigate associations between job insecurity and mental ill-health in relation to changes in other psychosocial work factors, loneliness and financial worries.

METHODS

A sub-sample of individuals from the eighth Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health answered a web-based survey in early 2021 about current and pandemic-related changes in health, health behaviours, work and private life. We investigated participants working before the pandemic (N=1231) in relation to standardised measures on depression, anxiety and loneliness, together with psychosocial work factors, in descriptive and logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS

While 9% reached the clinical threshold for depression and 6% for anxiety, more than a third felt more worried, lonelier or in a low mood since the start of the pandemic. Two per cent had been dismissed from their jobs, but 16% experienced workplace downsizings. Conditioning on socio-demographic factors and prior mental-health problems, the 8% experiencing reduced job security during the pandemic had a higher risk of anxiety, but not of depression, compared to employees with unaltered or increased job security. Loneliness and other psychosocial work factors explained more of the association than objective measures of job insecurity and financial worries.

CONCLUSIONS

Reduced job security during the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have increased the risk of anxiety among individuals with a strong labour market attachment, primarily via loneliness and other psychosocial work factors. This illustrates the potentially far-reaching effects of the pandemic on mental health in the working population.

Neuroticism and Stress in Older Adults: The Buffering Role of Self-Esteem

BACKGROUND

Chronic stress is associated with accelerated aging and poor health outcomes in older adults. According to the Transactional Model of Stress (TMS), distress is experienced when one perceives the stressor, or threat, to outweigh the ability to cope. The experience of distress is correlated with trait neuroticism, which is associated with greater perceptions of stress and stress reactivity, as well as a tendency to engage in maladaptive coping strategies. However, as individual personality traits do not act in isolation, this study aimed to investigate the moderating role of self-esteem in the relationship between neuroticism and distress using a TMS framework.

METHODS

A total of 201 healthy older adults (Mage = 68.65 years) completed questionnaires measuring self-esteem, neuroticism, perceived stress, and positive coping.

RESULTS

Greater neuroticism was significantly associated with less positive coping at low (b = -0.02, p < 0.001) and mean self-esteem levels (b = -0.01, p < 0.001), but not at high self-esteem levels (b = -0.01, p = 0.06). No moderating effect was found for perceived stress or overall distress.

CONCLUSION

The results support the association between trait neuroticism and indices of stress and suggest a potential buffering effect of self-esteem in moderating the negative association between neuroticism and positive coping.

Big Five personality predict epilepsy diagnosis in 7 years

Objective

Recently, there is growing interest in investigating how personality traits could predict a subsequent diagnosis of various diseases. Regarding epilepsy, there is only preliminary evidence based on cross-sectional studies linking personality traits to epilepsy, hence, emphasizing the need for longitudinal studies. The aim of the current study is to assess if the Big Five personality traits can predict the risk of an epilepsy diagnosis.

Methods

The current study analyzed data from 17,789 participants who participated in Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) at Wave 3 (collected between 2011 and 2012) and Wave 10 (collected between 2018 and 2019). The mean age was 47.01 (SD = 16.31) years and were 42.62% male. Two binary logistic regressions were used by including age, monthly income, highest educational qualification, legal marital status, residence, and standardized personality traits scores at Wave 3 as predictors for a clinical diagnosis of epilepsy at Wave 10 for males and females, respectively.

Results

There were 175 participants (0.98%) with epilepsy and 17,614 participants (99.02%) without epilepsy at Wave 10. Results of the binary regression analyses revealed that Neuroticism is positively related to the risk of an epilepsy diagnosis in males (OR = 1.32, p = 0.04, 95% CI [1.01, 1.71]) but not in females 7  years after Wave 3 at Wave 10. However, other personality traits including Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion were not significant predictors of epilepsy diagnosis.

Conclusion

These findings suggested that personality traits might enhance our understanding of psychophysiological associations in epilepsy. Neuroticism might be a relevant factor that should be taken into account in epilepsy education and treatment. Moreover, sex differences must be taken into account.

The effects of adverse childhood experiences on depression and suicidal behaviors are partially mediated by neuroticism: A subclinical manifestation of major depression

Introduction

Neuroticism, a personality trait, can predict major depressive disorder (MDD). The current study aims to determine whether a) neuroticism is a feature of the acute state of MDD, including suicidal behaviors (SB); and b) adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with neuroticism in MDD.

Methods

This study included 133 participants, 67 healthy controls and 66 MDD patients, and assessed the Big 5 Inventory (BFI), ACEs using the ACE Questionnaire, and the phenome of depression using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) scores to assess current SB.

Results

Neuroticism was significantly higher in MDD than controls, and it explained 64.9% of the variance in the depression phenome (a latent vector extracted from HAM-D, BDI, STAI, and current SB scores). The other BFI domains had much less (extraversion, agreeableness) or no effect (openness, conscientiousness). One latent vector could be extracted from the phenome, lifetime dysthymia, lifetime anxiety disorders and neuroticism scores. Neglect (physical and emotional) and abuse (physical, neglect and sexual) account for approximately 30% of the variance in this latent vector. Partial Least Squares analysis showed that the effects of neglect on the phenome were partially mediated by neuroticism, whereas the effects of abuse were completely mediated by neuroticism.

Discussion

Neuroticism (trait) and the MDD phenome (state) are both manifestations of the same latent core, with neuroticism being a subclinical manifestation of MDD.

Depressive personality traits and temperament and character personality traits in a clinical sample: Results from regression and network analyses

Personality and psychopathology are highly relevant and easily relatable constructs. The current study investigated the relationships between dependency and self-criticism, sociotropy and autonomy depressive personality traits, and Cloninger's temperament and character personality traits postulated as vulnerability factors for depression, in relation to depressive and general psychopathology symptoms in a clinical sample of 100 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder. The results showed that self-directedness, a character trait of the temperament and character model, was positively associated with dependency, self-criticism, sociotropy, and autonomy. Applying more in-depth analyses with regression models revealed associations between self-directedness and depressive personality styles dependency and sociotropy, and general psychopathology symptoms was a significant clinical indicator in these relationships. Going beyond the regression models, network analysis showed that self-directedness is associated with self-criticism, sociotropy, autonomy, and general psychopathology symptoms. The relationship between self-directedness and sociotropy, self-criticism and autonomy suggests that these depressive personality traits may be attributable to aspects of self-determination, maturity, responsibility, discipline, and self-acceptance. General psychopathology research informed by literature incorporating personality traits has far-reaching implications for understanding individual differences as well as increasing efforts to contribute to the amelioration of disabling psychological disorders like major depressive disorders.

Introversion and the frequency and intensity of daily uplifts and hassles

OBJECTIVE

There is reason to believe that introversion may relate to different patterns of negative and positive experiences in everyday life ("hassles" and "uplifts"), but there is little evidence for this based on reports made in daily life as events occur. We thus extend the literature by using data from ecological momentary assessments to examine whether introversion is associated with either the frequency or intensity of hassles and uplifts.

METHOD

Participants (N = 242) were community-dwelling adults (63% Black, 24% Hispanic; ages 25-65; 65% women) who completed baseline measures of personality and mental health, followed by reports of hassles and uplifts 5x/day for 14 days. We present associations between introversion and hassles/uplifts both with and without controlling for mood-related factors (neuroticism, recent symptoms of depression, and anxiety).

RESULTS

Introversion was associated with reporting less frequent and less enjoyable uplifts, but not with overall hassle frequency or unpleasantness; exploratory analyses suggest associations with specific types of hassles.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results expand understanding of the role of introversion in everyday experiences, suggesting an overall association between introversion and uplifts (but not hassles, broadly) in daily life. Better understanding of such connections may inform future research to determine mechanisms by which introversion relates to health.

From the BFI-44 to BFI-20: Psychometric Properties of the Short Form of the Big Five Inventory

The Big Five Inventory (BFI-44) has been a useful tool for researchers for over three decades. However, the contemporary way of life has created the need for abbreviated versions of psychological instruments. We derived the number of items from the BFI-44 questionnaire in order to create a short form of the questionnaire (BFI-20). In the first study (N = 1350, 82.4% females, aged 18-60), using a range of criteria, we identified 20 items (four for each of the Big Five traits) that most optimally represent each dimension. The five-factor structure was mostly replicated in the second (N = 215, 65.1% females, aged 18-65) and third study (N = 263, 83.7% females, aged 18-42). The BFI-20 demonstrated satisfactory reliability, representativeness, homogeneity, and part-whole convergence. Despite mild attenuation, most BFI-20 correlations with schizotypy, satisfaction with life, and positive orientation remained in the same range compared to the BFI-44. The Agreeableness domain was shown to be the most challenging for capturing with four items. We discuss the advantages of our BFI-20 compared to the other two 20-item versions. In sum, we can recommend the use of this BFI-20 version as a time-efficient, satisfactory reliable, and representative questionnaire.

World Trade Center responders in their own words: predicting PTSD symptom trajectories with AI-based language analyses of interviews

BACKGROUND

Oral histories from 9/11 responders to the World Trade Center (WTC) attacks provide rich narratives about distress and resilience. Artificial Intelligence (AI) models promise to detect psychopathology in natural language, but they have been evaluated primarily in non-clinical settings using social media. This study sought to test the ability of AI-based language assessments to predict PTSD symptom trajectories among responders.

METHODS

Participants were 124 responders whose health was monitored at the Stony Brook WTC Health and Wellness Program who completed oral history interviews about their initial WTC experiences. PTSD symptom severity was measured longitudinally using the PTSD Checklist (PCL) for up to 7 years post-interview. AI-based indicators were computed for depression, anxiety, neuroticism, and extraversion along with dictionary-based measures of linguistic and interpersonal style. Linear regression and multilevel models estimated associations of AI indicators with concurrent and subsequent PTSD symptom severity (significance adjusted by false discovery rate).

RESULTS

Cross-sectionally, greater depressive language (β = 0.32; p = 0.049) and first-person singular usage (β = 0.31; p = 0.049) were associated with increased symptom severity. Longitudinally, anxious language predicted future worsening in PCL scores (β = 0.30; p = 0.049), whereas first-person plural usage (β = -0.36; p = 0.014) and longer words usage (β = -0.35; p = 0.014) predicted improvement.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first study to demonstrate the value of AI in understanding PTSD in a vulnerable population. Future studies should extend this application to other trauma exposures and to other demographic groups, especially under-represented minorities.

Investigating the Role of Personality Traits on the Mental Health of the Residents of China: How Effective is the BIG Five?

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the influence of personality traits in determining the mental health of Chinese residents. To reflect the personality characteristic, a questionnaire survey has been designed with the components of agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, extraversion, and emotional stability. In addition, anxiety and depression have been mirrored in anxiety and depression items. China's diverse community members were surveyed through an online questionnaire.Methods: Smart PLS has been used to apply both measurement and structural models to empirical estimations. The measurement model's results demonstrate its reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. On the other hand, the SEM method yields fruitful results. Results: It is noticed that agreeableness, consciousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience have a considerable effect on responders' mental health. Nevertheless, the negative and significant coefficients of agreeableness, emotional stability, and openness to experience indicate that they lessen mental distress and sadness. Still, conscientiousness harms these cognitive difficulties. Conclusion: These findings imply that an environment of openness to experience, emotional stability, and agreeableness must be fostered to reduce mental tension and anxiety. In addition, this work addresses a few constraints and future initiatives.

The Italian COVID-19 Anxiety Syndrome Scale: Investigation of the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome and its association with psychological symptoms in an Italian population

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 Anxiety Syndrome Scale (C-19ASS) is a quick and reliable scale assessing dysfunctional coping strategies activated in response to COVID-19 fear and threat. The present study aimed to provide a preliminary validation of the Italian version of the C-19ASS and investigated whether the C-19ASS would mediate the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and psychological outcomes.

METHOD

In Study 1, a community sample of 271 participants completed the Italian version of the C-19ASS and results were subjected to a Principal Component Analysis. In study 2, a community sample of 484 participants completed the Italian version of the C-19ASS and a series of measures assessing COVID-19 anxiety, COVID-19 fear, functional impairment, personality traits, depression, generalized anxiety and health anxiety. Internal consistency, concurrent and incremental validity were assessed. Path analyses were run.

RESULTS

Factor analysis identified a two-factor solution (i.e., C-19ASS Perseveration and C-19ASS Avoidance) and confirmatory factor analysis suggested a two-factor model best fits the data. The Italian version of the C-19ASS showed good internal consistency. There was also evidence of convergent validity and incremental validity. Path analyses showed that C-19ASS Perseveration mediates the relationship between emotional stability and psychological symptoms (depression, generalized anxiety and health anxiety).

CONCLUSION

The Italian version of the C-19ASS appears to be a reliable and valid measure of the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome. The COVID-19 anxiety syndrome could be a suitable therapeutic target to reduce psychological symptoms typically linked to pandemic events, such as depression generalized anxiety and health anxiety.

The Big Five personality traits and the fear of COVID-19 in predicting depression and anxiety among Japanese nurses caring for COVID-19 patients: A cross-sectional study in Wakayama prefecture

Recent studies have found a relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems. Medical workers caring for COVID-19 patients tend to suffer from mental health problems; however, the impact of their personality traits, in the form of mental problems like depression and anxiety in Japan is unclear. In this study, we investigated the risk of nurses' depression and anxiety, predicted by the fear of COVID-19 and the Big Five personality traits. A total of 417 nurses working in hospitals providing care to COVID-19 patients in Wakayama prefecture of the Kansai region participated in this study. The questionnaires comprised items on nurses' basic characteristics and three scales: the Fear of COVID-19 Scale 2020, the Big-Five Scale, and the Japanese version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Depression and anxiety in the HADS were set as dependent variables, and basic attributes, fear, and personality traits as independent variables; multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted. The questionnaire, with no missing items was distributed from February to March 2021. Neuroticism (OR = 1.06, 95%CI = 1.03-1.09) was the only significant factor associated with the depression symptom, and both FCV-19S scores (OR = 1.16, 95%CI = 1.09-1.23) and neuroticism (OR = 1.09, 95%CI = 1.06-1.13) were the significant factors associated with anxiety. The Nagelkerke's R squared was 0.171 in the depression model and 0.366 in the anxiety model. Thus, it was found that it is necessary to support nurses' mental health by developing methods suitable to their personalities.

Regional gray matter volume mediates the relationship between neuroticism and depressed emotion

The underlying psychological mechanism of the effect of neuroticism on depressed emotion has been widely studied. However, the neural mechanism of this relationship remains unclear. Therefore, the present study aimed to apply voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to explore the neural mechanism of the relationship between depressed emotion and neuroticism in healthy and young participants through longitudinal tracking research. The behavioral results showed that neuroticism was positively related to depressed emotion at T1 and T2 (6 months later). The VBM analysis revealed that neuroticism positively associated with the gray matter volume (GMV) in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Mediation analysis was conducted to investigate the neural basis of the association between depressed emotion and neuroticism. The mediation result revealed that GMV of the dmPFC partially mediates the relationship between neuroticism and depressed emotion at T1 but not T2. Together, these findings suggest that the gray matter volume of dmPFC could may affect the relationship between depressed emotion and neuroticism.

Behavioral Patterns of Depression Patients and Control Population

Behavioral and multifactorial factors, such as psychological, nutritional, dental pathology, and physical activity habits, are factors that control depression. The objective of the present study was to analyze the differences in the behavioral, psychological, nutritional, dental pathology, and physical activity patterns of the depressed and control population. Forty-eight participants with depression (45.7 ± 12.0) and one hundred participants in a control group without any pathology or medication (48.9 ± 7.9) were interviewed using an online questionnaire. The multifactorial items of psychology, oral behavior, nutritional habits, and physical activity profile were analyzed through a set of questionnaires. The results showed how the depression group showed significantly higher psychological measures related to personality, anxiety, depression, loneliness, perceived stress, and psychological inflexibility than the control group. The control group showed significantly higher weekly vitality, vitality at the end of the week, weekly frequency of juice, wine, coffee, fresh vegetable salad, and Bristol scale than the depression group. Higher values of migraine headache, weekly soft drink frequency, and digestion after meals were found in the depression group. In addition, patients with depression also presented poor dental health, presenting higher rates of gastritis or heartburn, dry mouth, dental sensitivity, and sick days per year than the control group. Both groups presented a pattern of low physical activity. This information allows a better understanding of a multifactorial disease, as well as the creation of intervention and prevention protocols for this disease at a behavioral and lifestyle level.

Personality traits and mental health care utilization: Longitudinal findings from the MIDUS

Underutilization of mental health services is prevalent in the U.S., and an understanding of utilization patterns can inform interventions to enhance treatment use. The current study investigated longitudinal associations between changes in mental health care utilization (MHCU) and Big Five personality traits. Data included three waves (4,658 adult participants) of the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study. 1,632 participants provided data at all three waves. Second-order latent growth curve models showed that MHCU level predicted an increase in emotional stability, and emotional stability level predicted a decrease in MHCU. Increases in emotional stability, extraversion, and conscientiousness predicted decreases in MHCU. These results indicate that personality is associated with MHCU over time and may inform interventions to increase MHCU.

Systematic review of genome-wide association studies of anxiety disorders and neuroticism

OBJECTIVES

To summarise SNP associations identified by genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of anxiety disorders and neuroticism; to appraise the quality of individual studies, and to assess the ancestral diversity of study participants.

METHODS

We searched PubMed, Scopus, PsychInfo and PubPsych for GWASs of anxiety disorders, non-diagnostic traits (such as anxiety sensitivity), and neuroticism, and extracted all SNPs that surpassed genome-wide significance. We graded study quality using Q-genie scores and reviewed the ancestral diversity of included participants.

RESULTS

32 studies met our inclusion criteria. A total of 563 independent significant variants were identified, of which 29 were replicated nominally in independent samples, and 3 were replicated significantly. The studies had good global quality, but many smaller studies were underpowered. Phenotypic heterogeneity for anxiety (and less so for neuroticism) seemed to reflect the complexity of capturing this trait. Ancestral diversity was poor, with 70% of studies including only populations of European ancestry.

CONCLUSION

The functionality of genes identified by GWASs of anxiety and neuroticism deserves further investigation. Future GWASs should have larger sample sizes, more rigorous phenotyping and include more ancestrally diverse population groups.

Individual and Organizational Factors in Coping With COVID-19 in Soldier Students

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant burden across different industrial sectors. Generally, an increase in psychological stress experiences has been reported, while the stress and coping responses of specific, potentially burdened populations have received less attention thus far. Thus, the present study investigated relations between individual (i.e., extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness) and organizational (i.e., organizational commitment and study satisfaction) factors, indicators of psychological health (i.e., loneliness, life satisfaction, COVID-19-related stress), and possible mediating effects of four broad coping dimensions (active coping, avoidant coping, social support, positive cognitive restructuring) in a specific sample of soldier students who engage in a double-role being military affiliates and students of non-military subjects. To this end, we assessed data of soldier students at two measurement points (N = 106 at t1 and N = 63 at t2) shortly after the second national lockdown in Germany (20. May 2021 to 11. July 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Personality traits showed expected associations with indicators of psychological health, i.e., positive relations between neuroticism and social loneliness, between extraversion and COVID-19 stress, and negative relations between neuroticism and life satisfaction. Remarkably, organizational variables showed effects above and beyond personality traits on loneliness and life satisfaction. Neither individual, nor organizational factors could predict change in psychological health over time. We found evidence for mediation effects through active coping, avoidant coping, and the use of social support, but not through positive cognitive restructuring. Findings highlight the relative importance of organizational factors besides personality traits for psychological health in a military student sample, holding important implications for designing efficient support systems in the military.

The roles of parental absence, life skills and personality traits in mental health status among adolescents in rural China

PROBLEM

Mental health issues in adolescents are public health concerns worldwide including China. However, there is a lack of research examining the role of parental absence status, life skills, and personality traits on the mental health of adolescents in rural China.

METHOD

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the role of parental absence status, life skills, and personality traits on the mental health of adolescents in rural China. This study used self-developed demographic questionnaire, Mental Health Test (MHT), Middle School Student Life Skills Rating Scale, and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the associated factors on different domains of MHT.

RESULTS

Adolescents in rural China reported high proportion of mental health disorders (MHDs), including learning anxiety, sensitiveness, self-accusation, and physical symptoms tendency. Although 75.6% experienced parental absence, this was not associated with MHT after controlling for all other variables. Better mental health was correlated with life skills including communication skills, interpersonal morality, self-efficacy, and stress coping. The instability-neuroticism personality trait was positively associated with MHDs.

DISCUSSION

Adolescents in rural China reported high positive rates of MHDs. Communication skills, interpersonal morality, self-efficacy, ability to cope with stress and Instability-neuroticism were important associated factors of MHDs.

APPLICATION TO PRACTICE

Life skills and personality are two important factors that should be considered when assessing the mental health status of adolescents and formulating interventions.

Personality as a mediator of autistic traits and internalizing symptoms in two community samples

Background

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by deficits in social functioning and is comorbid with internalizing disorders and symptoms. While personality is associated with these symptoms and social functioning in non-ASD samples, its role mediating the relationship between ASD traits and internalizing symptoms is not clear.

Methods

We studied the mediating effect of personality on the correlations between ASD traits and internalizing symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, stress) in two samples. Additionally, we explored the moderating effect of gender. Analyses were applied to a small (Study 1; N = 101) undergraduate sample. A broader sample recruited via an online crowdsourcing platform (Study 2; N = 371) was used to validate the results.

Results

Study 1’s mediation analyses revealed that neuroticism was the only significant mediator. Study 2 replicated these results by finding extraversion to be an additional mediator for anxiety and extraversion, openness, and agreeableness as additional mediators for stress. Moderation analyses revealed that gender was never a significant moderator.

Conclusions

These results support the effects of personality on the relationship between autism traits and internalizing symptoms. Future research should explore these effects in clinical samples to better understand the role of personality in symptomatology and the need to address it as part of intervention.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-022-00774-z.

White Matter Hyperintensities after Five-Year Follow-Up and a Cross-Sectional FA Decrease in Bipolar I and Major Depressive Patients

INTRODUCTION

An increase in brain white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) and a decrease in white matter fractional anisotrophy (FA) have been detected in bipolar I (BPI), II (BPII), and major depressive disorder (MDD) patients. Their relationship, and differences in diagnostic groups are obscure. Longitudinal studies are rare.

OBJECTIVE

After 5-year follow-up, we evaluated WMHs in BPI, BPII, and MDD patients as compared with controls, and studied the effects of clinical variables. We also explored the associations of clinical variables with cross-sectional whole brain FA.

METHODS

Eight BPI, 8 BPII, 6 MDD patients, and 19 controls participated in magnetic resonance imaging at baseline and follow-up. Diffusion weighted imaging was included at follow-up. WMHs were rated by the Coffey scale, and a tract-based spatial statistics method was used for diffusion data. The general linear model, ANOVA, Fisher's exact, Wilcoxon sign, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for statistical analyses.

RESULTS

Periventricular WMHs were increased in BPI patients (p = 0.047) and associated with the duration of disorder and lifetime occurrence of substance use disorder (p = 0.018). FA decrease was found in the corpus callosum of BPI patients (p < 0.01). MDD patients showed FA decrease in the right cerebellar middle peduncle (RCMP) (p < 0.01). In BPI patients, the duration of disorder associated with FA increase in RCMP (p < 0.05). No FA decrease was detected in patients with WMHs as compared with those without.

CONCLUSIONS

Preceding illness burden associated modestly with WMHs, and FA increase in RCMP in BPI patients. MDD patients had FA decrease in RCMP. No association with FA decrease and WMHs was found.

Association of comprehensive mental health with incident cardiovascular disease: A prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Evidence is limited regarding the impact of comprehensive mental health on the risk of subsequent cardiovascular events.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the association of mental health status with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the UK Biobank.

METHODS

This prospective study included 339,616 participants aged 40 to 69 years who were enrolled between 2006 and 2010 and were followed up to 2020, without CVD at baseline. A mental health score was created using information about depressive symptoms, anxiety, loneliness, and neuroticism. Cardiovascular disease events ascertained through hospital inpatient. Cox models were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals across mental health score.

RESULTS

During a median follow-up of 11.3 years (3.7 million person-years), we documented 22,688 CVD cases including 18,460 CHD cases and 5,070 stroke cases (some individuals were diagnosed as having both CHD and stroke). A statistically significantly increased risk of incident CVD was observed for the four mental factors individually, with adjusted hazard ratios ranging from 1.03 to 1.44. The composite score of such four mental factors was also positively associated with CVD risk in a dose-response manner, with the highest scores associated with a 1.56-fold (95% confidence interval 1.47 to 1.65), 1.61-fold (1.51 to 1.72), and 1.44-fold (1.25 to 1.67) higher CVD, CHD, and stroke risk, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

In this large prospective study, poor mental health status was associated with an increased risk of CVD. Our results highlight the importance to jointly investigate the mental health factors in relation to the risk of CVD.

The role of personality traits and social support in relations of health-related behaviours and depressive symptoms

BACKGROUND

Previous evidence has suggested that physically inactive individuals and extensive media users are at high risk for experiencing depressive symptoms. We examined personality traits and perceived social support as potential moderators of this association. Personality and perceived social support were included as two of the most frequently considered variables when determining predispositioning factors for media use phenomena also discussed in relation to physical activity.

METHODS

We analysed cross-sectional data from 1402 adults (18-31 years old) who participated in a national health survey in Germany (KiGGS, Study on the health of children and adolescents in Germany, wave 2). The data included one-week accelerometer assessments as objective indicators of physical activity, self-reported media use, depressive symptoms, perceived social support and Big 5 personality traits. An elastic net regression model was fit with depressive symptoms as outcome. Ten-fold cross-validation was implemented.

RESULTS

Amongst the main effects, we found that high media use was positively correlated with depressive symptoms, whereas physical activity was not correlated. Looking at support and individual differences as moderators, revealed that PC use was more strongly correlated with depressive symptoms in cases of low levels of perceived social support. Positive associations of social media use with depressive symptoms were more pronounced, whereas negative associations of moderate to vigorous physical activity with depressive symptoms were less pronounced in extraverts than they were in introverts.

CONCLUSIONS

Results highlight the importance of considering individual factors for deriving more valid recommendations on protective health behaviours.

Extraversion and Neuroticism on College Freshmen's Depressive Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Social Support

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to explore the direct effects of extraversion and neuroticism on college freshmen's depressive symptoms and their indirect effects via social support under the background of COVID-19.

METHOD

A total of 3,563 college freshmen were surveyed using the extraversion and neuroticism scales of the Chinese version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), the Chinese version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS). Partial correlation analyses and regression analyses were used.

RESULTS

(1) Extraversion had a significant and negative predictive effect on depressive symptoms, while neuroticism positively predicted depressive symptoms. The interaction effect between extraversion and neuroticism on depressive symptoms was also significant. Neuroticism had a greater impact on depressive symptoms in college freshmen with low levels of extraversion. (2) Furthermore, social support partially mediated the relationships between extraversion and depressive symptoms, and neuroticism and depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Extraversion and neuroticism can directly affect college freshmen' s depressive symptoms, and have indirect effects via the mediating role of social support. Additionally, extraversion interacts with neuroticism, and extraversion plays a protective role in the effect of neuroticism on depressive symptoms. These findings help identify college freshmen at high risk of depression and design effective prevention or intervention measures for them.

Global Behaviors, Perceptions, and the Emergence of Social Norms at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

We conducted a large-scale survey covering 58 countries and over 100,000 respondents between late March and early April 2020 to study beliefs and attitudes towards citizens' and governments' responses at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most respondents reported holding normative beliefs in support of COVID-19 containment measures, as well as high rates of adherence to these measures. They also believed that their government and their country's citizens were not doing enough and underestimated the degree to which others in their country supported strong behavioral and policy responses to the pandemic. Normative beliefs were strongly associated with adherence, as well as beliefs about others' and the government's response. Lockdowns were associated with greater optimism about others' and the government's response, and improvements in measures of perceived mental well-being; these effects tended to be larger for those with stronger normative beliefs. Our findings highlight how social norms can arise quickly and effectively to support cooperation at a global scale.

Anxiety symptoms during COVID-19 in older adults with psychiatric disorders

OBJECTIVE

During the COVID-19 pandemic, older people and patients with psychiatric disorders had an increased risk of being isolated. The French National Authority for Health has recommended a reinforced follow-up of these patients. Cross-sectional studies reported an increased risk of developing anxiety and depression during pandemic. The aim of our study was to identify factors associated with higher anxiety during the pandemic in older patients with psychiatric disorders.

METHODS

STERACOVID is a multicenter cohort study with 117 patients followed-up by phone in two French geriatric psychiatry units. In this work, we used cross-sectional data from a prospective follow-up conducted between January and May 2021.

RESULTS

We found that coping strategies, personality, and living conditions were associated with general anxiety (GA) level during the pandemic period. Higher GA was associated with less positive thinking coping strategy, more avoidance strategies, a lower level of extraversion, a higher level of neuroticism, more time spent watching the news, a higher feeling of loneliness, and a lack of physical contact.

FINDINGS

Our study identified factors associated with a poorer experience of pandemic crisis. Special attention should be paid to patients with a high level of neuroticism and a high feeling of loneliness. Support could aim to help patients use more functional strategies: reducing avoidance strategies and increasing positive thinking. Finally, reducing time watching news could also be an interesting prevention perspective.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

clinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT04760795.