The NEO-FFI is a reliable measure of premorbid personality in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

The NEO-FFI can be used reliably to measure premorbid personality in patients with probable AD. It may be useful to maximise reliability by using a mean domain score based on questionnaires completed by two or more informants who knew the patient well earlier in life.

Personality changes in Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review

“…Of these, 15 studies used the 181-item NEO PI, the 240-item NEO PI-R or the 60-item NEO-FFI to assess personality traits in dementia. However, five of the studies assessed only premorbid personality traits rather than both premorbid and current traits (Wild et al, 1994;Kolanowski et al, 1997;Kolanowski and Garr, 1999;Low et al, 2002;Seiffer et al, 2005;Archer et al, 2006;Wilson et al, 2008). One study (Seiffer et al, 2005) reported only the domain of Conscientiousness.…”

“…Regardless of the pattern of personality change over time, existing evidence indicates that people with AD often score lower than age-matched controls in the personality domains of openness, extraversion and conscientiousness (Siegler et al, 1991;Chatterjee et al, 1992;Siegler et al, 1994;Dawson et al, 2000;Archer et al, 2006). These differences contrast with the relative stability of personality in adults aged 30 years and over (Costa and McCrae, 1988).…”

“…Both Forms have 240 items and Form R is written in the third person for peer, spouse or expert ratings (Costa and McCrae, 1992). The NEO-FFI consists of five 12-item domains and also now comes in two forms for selfrating and informant-rating (Costa and McCrae, 1992;Archer et al, 2006). The NEO-FFI is found to be a reliable measure of premorbid personality even in patients with probable AD (Archer et al, 2006).…”

“…The NEO-FFI consists of five 12-item domains and also now comes in two forms for selfrating and informant-rating (Costa and McCrae, 1992;Archer et al, 2006). The NEO-FFI is found to be a reliable measure of premorbid personality even in patients with probable AD (Archer et al, 2006). Short descriptions of the domains are presented in Table 1 and the six facets of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness and their relation to dementia are presented in Table 2.…”

“…In addition, it has been suggested that greater neuroticism is associated with higher risk of cognitive impairment (Crowe et al, 2006). Furthermore, there is recent evidence that premorbid personality style might predict the likelihood of certain behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (Archer et al, 2006).…”