The relationship between neuroticism, major depressive disorder and comorbid disorders in Chinese women

Abstract

ObjectiveThe personality trait of neuroticism is a risk factor for major depressive disorder (MDD), but this relationship has not been demonstrated in clinical samples from Asia.MethodsWe examined a large-scale clinical study of Chinese Han women with recurrent major depression and community-acquired controls.ResultsElevated levels of neuroticism increased the risk for lifetime MDD (with an odds ratio of 1.37 per SD), contributed to the comorbidity of MDD with anxiety disorders, and predicted the onset and severity of MDD. Our findings largely replicate those obtained in clinical populations in Europe and US but differ in two ways: we did not find a relationship between melancholia and neuroticism; we found lower mean scores for neuroticism (3.6 in our community control sample).LimitationsOur findings do not apply to MDD in community-acquired samples and may be limited to Han Chinese women. It is not possible to determine whether the association between neuroticism and MDD reflects a causal relationship.ConclusionsNeuroticism acts as a risk factor for MDD in Chinese women, as it does in the West and may particularly predispose to comorbidity with anxiety disorders. Cultural factors may have an important effect on its measurement.

The Predictive Value of Personality Traits for Psychological Problems (Stress, Anxiety and Depression): Results from a Large Population Based Study

“…In the present study, Openness was also higher in individuals aged below 40 years which was in agreement with the results of other studies [35,39,43,64]. In the study by Smits and others, a clear pattern was not observed about the scores of Openness in different age groups [64].…”

“…Mõttus and others [65] also found a negative relationship between Agreeableness and age which was consistent with the result of the present study, but other studies found a positive correlation between Agreeableness and age [35,39,43,45]. Majority of previous studies revealed that increased age could lead to a decline in the levels of extraversion in individuals [39,43,60] also the results of Smits's study also revealed a small linear increasing trend between these two variables [64]; however, our study did not show significant difference between two age groups in terms of Extraversion scores. It should be noted that there are two views regarding to explain the relationship between age and personality traits; "the inherent view" and "the field-oriented" view which are focused on genetic factors and environmental factors, respectively.…”

“…Like the results of present study, most of previous studies showed lower levels of conscientiousness along with increasing in age [35,39,42,43,63].…”

Meta-analysis of Genome-wide Association Studies for Neuroticism, and the Polygenic Association With Major Depressive Disorder

“…1 Perhaps the strongest link between personality and psychiatric illness is the association of neuroticism with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) 2–5 . Neuroticism is also associated with other psychiatric disorders that entail emotional dysregulation, including personality, substance use and anxiety disorders.…”

Comorbidity between personality disorders and depressive symptomatology in women: A cross‐sectional study of three different transitional life stages

“…Supported by recent literature, the DSM‐V highlights the utility of dimensional approaches to diagnosis. Thus, a recent study (Xia et al, ) conducted in women found that neuroticism scores were higher in women with a Mood Depressive Disorder (MDD) compared with women without MDD. Moreover, there are strongly positive correlations between neuroticism and most PDs (Duijsens & Diekstra, ; Saulsman & Page, ).…”