Neuroticism may be associated with history of depression in the elderly

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Abstract
The relationships between geriatric depression and various personality traits have never been fully clarified, and their clinical significance is uncertain. Depression in geriatric patients may differ from the disorder found in younger individuals, and may also have distinctive personality antecedents or consequences. In this study 16 elderly subjects who had recovered from depression and 14 elderly control completed the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) and the Personality Disorder Examination (PDE). On the EPI, neuroticism subscale scores were significantly higher for patients than controls, while mean extraversion scores were not significantly different. On the PDE, recovered depressives had higher dimensional scores than controls in each DSM‐III‐R personality disorder except antisocial. Neuroticism scores correlated significantly with PDE dimensional scores for all but two of the DSM‐III‐R personality disorders, while extraversion scores correlated significantly with only two PDE categories. Together, these findings suggest that neuroticism and criteria for most DSM‐III‐R personality disorders may be associated with history of depression in a geriatric population.

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