Academic literature on the topic 'Personality-Disease Link'

The pioneering work of the authors of the Type A personality concept has now been shown to be seriously flawed, with only the traits of anger, aggression, and hostility remaining as risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD). There is now evidence for a much stronger relationship between CHD and personality involving a rather different set of concepts and theories. The evidence for such a relationship is summarized, and a causal link suggested. It is also shown that the CHD‐prone type of behaviour can be changed by behaviour therapy, decreasing considerably the risk of dying from CHD.

Objective The Type A personality, characterized by impatience, strong career ambition and competitiveness, is associated with greater sensitivity to external stress. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an auto-immune disease, which is potentially influenced by stress, unlike type 2 diabetes (T2D). The aim of this study was to assess whether individuals with T1D and T2D exhibited significant differences on the Type A personality scale. We also assessed personality in patients with thyroid auto-immune diseases to validate potential links between auto-immune disease and Type A personality. Design and methods The Bortner questionnaire was used to assess Type A personality in 188 patients with T1D, 430 patients with T2D and 85 patients with auto-immune thyroid disease (Graves’ disease or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis). Results Type A Bortner scores were significantly higher in T1D patients than in T2D patients (188 ± 34 vs 177 ± 36, P < 0.0001). Patients with auto-immune thyroid diseases and T1D patients had similar Type A Bortner scores (189 ± 33 vs 188 ± 34, P = 0.860). Conclusion Patients with auto-immune T1D have higher Type A scores than T2D patients. Furthermore, patients with auto-immune thyroid disease also have elevated Type A scores similar to those observed in type 1 diabetes, suggesting that an elevated Type A score in T1D is potentially related to its auto-immune origin. This suggests a possible link between Type A personality and auto-immune diseases via stress-triggering psychobiological pathways. The different personality score between T1D and T2D is an important factor, which could influence self-care coping strategies in diabetes and long-term prognosis.

SynopsisThis quasi-prospective study of 2163 women attending breast-screening clinics (and controls), indicates that there is a link between personality factors and breast disease. Certain aspects of Type A behaviour seem to be associated with breast-disease states.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the elderly. This neurodegenerative disorder is clinically characterized by impairment of cognitive functions and changes in behaviour and personality. The pathogenesis of AD is still unclear. Recent evidence supports some role of mitochondria dysfunction and oxidative stress in the development of the neurodegenerative process. In this review, we discuss the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in AD, focusing on the mechanisms that lead to mitochondrial impairment, oxidative stress, and neurodegeneration, a “vicious circle” that ends in dementia.

Background: The link between personality traits and employment status in individuals with chronic health conditions (CHCs) is largely unexplored. In this study, we examined this association among 21,173 individuals with CHCs and whether this association differs between individuals suffering from a heart disease, depression, anxiety, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, musculoskeletal disease (MSD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: This study was conducted using baseline data from the Lifelines Cohort Study. Employment status and the presence of CHCs were determined by questionnaire data. The Revised Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) was used to measure eight personality facet traits. We conducted disease-generic and disease-specific logistic regression analyses. Results: Workers with higher scores on self-consciousness (OR: 1.02; 95% CI: 1.01–1.02), impulsivity (1.03; 1.02–1.04), excitement seeking (1.02; 1.01–1.02), competence (1.08; 1.07–1.10) and self-discipline (1.04; 1.03–1.05) were more often employed. Adults with higher scores on anger-hostility (0.97; 0.97–0.98), vulnerability (0.98; 0.97–0.99), and deliberation (0.96; 0.95–0.97) were least often employed. Personality facets were associated strongest with employment status among individuals suffering from MSD and weakest in individuals with T2DM. Conclusions: Personality might be a key resource to continue working despite having a CHC. This may be relevant for the development of targeted personality-focused interventions.

Background and Objectives: to investigate the current state of art in the study of personality disorders in central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC), also taking into account the dimensional approach. Materials and Methods: this systematic review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. We included articles written in English or Italian, published in peer reviewed journals from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2020. Results: after the screening, 10 studies were included. The results suggest that CSC patients are not characterized by the prevalence of a formal personality disorder, but they are better explained by typical personality traits that may alter their relationship with others. CSC patients seems to be characterized by high levels of aggressiveness and anxiety traits along with low sociability. We propose a model of disease where stress exacerbates prior specific traits in a vicious circle where some traits might be involved in disease progression and manifestation. Conclusions: maladaptive personality traits might be an essential feature of the disease and may represent a possible link between psychiatric symptoms, such as insomnia, anxiety, and depression, and endocrinological patterns. Further research should use a specific assessment scale evaluating both the level of interpersonal functioning and specific maladaptive traits.

Recent research addressing the link between psychological factors and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) has focused on the areas of hostility and anger and produced sometimes contradictory results. This study makes use of four questionnaire measures of hostility and anger, which were administered to matched groups with and without CHD. Quicker experiences of anger with greater verbal expression best predicted CHD. The difficulties in teasing out the relative contributions of emotional expression, experience and personality using available questionnaires are discussed.

Aim. To evaluate the type D personality relation with clinical and instrumental parameters in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) underwent coronary stenting (CS) and to determine the influence of the personality type D on the prognosis in these patients within one year after CS. Material and methods. Into prospective study we included 977 patients (740 men and 237 women) aged 33 to 86 years (mean age 58.7±9.4) who underwent CS. The Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to estimate the relative risk (RR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of the end point. The end points included death from all causes, death from cardiovas- cular disease (CVD), myocardial infarction (fatal + non-fatal) (MI), non-fatal myocardial infarction (non-fatal MI), unstable angina (UA), and stroke. Results. Type D personality was found in 31.8% patients. These did not differ from the others in terms of age, gender, main cardiovascular risk factors. Patients of D-type had tendency to the increase of diabetes diagnosed – 25.1% vs 20.3% (p=0.09). At the same time D-type patients had more prevalent ≥2 myocardial infarction in anamnesis – 9.0% vs 4.5% (p=0,006) among those with post infarction cardiosclerosis. There was no difference between the groups according to echocardiography and the short-term outcomes of CS. During the prospective study period (12±1.8 months) 24 patients (2.4%) died from all causes, 21 patients (2.1%) died from CVD. MI developed in 47 patients (4.8%) of whom, 23 patients (2.4%) underwent non-fatal MI. In 50 patients (5.1%) ischemic heart disease in a prospective period complicated UA. In 8 patients (0.8%) developed a stroke. There was no effect of personality type D on the prognosis in patients with CHD who underwent CS for 1 year after surgery. Conclusion. Among CHD patients underwent CS, type D personality was found in 31.8%. There is no link for type D personality and severity of CHD clinically as well as the short-term and long-term outcomes of CS.

Animal behaviour and the ecology and evolution of parasites are inextricably linked. For this reason, animal behaviourists and disease ecologists have been interested in the intersection of their respective fields for decades. Despite this interest, most research at the behaviour–disease interface focuses either on how host behaviour affects parasites or how parasites affect behaviour, with little overlap between the two. Yet, the majority of interactions between hosts and parasites are probably reciprocal, such that host behaviour feeds back on parasites and vice versa. Explicitly considering these feedbacks is essential for understanding the complex connections between animal behaviour and parasite ecology and evolution. To illustrate this point, we discuss how host behaviour–parasite feedbacks might operate and explore the consequences of feedback for studies of animal behaviour and parasites. For example, ignoring the feedback of host social structure on parasite dynamics can limit the accuracy of predictions about parasite spread. Likewise, considering feedback in studies of parasites and animal personalities may provide unique insight about the maintenance of variation in personality types. Finally, applying the feedback concept to links between host behaviour and beneficial, rather than pathogenic, microbes may shed new light on transitions between mutualism and parasitism. More generally, accounting for host behaviour–parasite feedbacks can help identify critical gaps in our understanding of how key host behaviours and parasite traits evolve and are maintained.

The paper deals with methodological issues related to the link between the processes of forming the internal picture of the disease and coping behavior in the dynamics of the subjective and objective factors of the psychosocial functioning of the personality. From our point of view, there are significant stages, implying the association of the components of the internal picture of the disease, as well as the personal meaning of health and coping behavior. The variants of their interdependence in the structure of the integral adaptation process are considered, which, in turn, determines the patient’s essential understanding and assessment of the quality of life (QOL) in the actual life situation.

Doctor of Philosophy
Grossarth-Maticek and Eysenck (1988) demonstrated that personality type as measured by the 70-item Grossarth-Maticek Personality Stress Inventory (GMPSI), predicts mortality and its cause with remarkable accuracy. Further, various forms of autonomy training, such as bibliotherapy and short individual treatment that were designed to reduce the toxic personality features (such as emotional dependence) effectively improved long-term health outcomes. However, several aspects of their theory and research were either insufficiently explicated or require further investigation. For example, the researchers did not thoroughly investigate the psychometric properties of the inventory, and they did not sufficiently examine the mechanisms that may mediate the personality-health relationship. Further, the autonomy training was inadequately described, and perhaps could have been briefer and had the same impact. Three studies were run to investigate these issues further. Study 1 (Chapter 2) investigated the internal consistency, test-retest reliability and convergent, discriminant and concurrent validity of the GMPSI in 312 first-year students, using a variety of statistical techniques (e.g., structural equation modeling, confirmatory factor analysis, and simple correlations). In addition, the psychometric properties of this scale were compared to those of three revised versions of the scale, which were theorised to be psychometric improvements of the original version from basic principles. The revised versions contained reverse-worded items (of different types) to monitor and disrupt acquiescence response sets, and/or an extended response scale to improve internal consistency and stability. Psychometric effects of reverse-wording and the extended response scale on scale reliability were examined via the analysis of construct reliability estimates, personality subscale model fit of congeneric measurement models (a form of structural equation modeling), and test-retest reliability estimates. The original version of the scale appeared to be the most reliable and valid scale of the four versions. This improved reliability of the original version was not an artifact of an acquiescence response set, because this form of responding was not prevalent in the reverse-worded versions. In contrast, it appeared that the incorporation of reverse-wording degraded the internal consistency of the scale as participants appeared to respond to the positive and negative-worded items as if they were measurements of independent constructs, rather than measurements of constructs on opposite ends of a particular dimension. Predicted correlations between the GMPSI and concurrent validity measures offered support for Grossarth-Maticek's theory, and suggest that the GMPSI is an effective and reliable tool for the measurement of these personality types. However, experimental evidence supporting the link between personality, mediating mechanisms and disease is required to further substantiate these findings. The second and third studies (Chapters 3 and 4, respectively) were investigations of the utility of an information pamphlet discussing stress, assertiveness and relaxation, in improving GMPSI personality type stress responses in a student and a community sample (Studies 2 and 3 respectively), and provided an opportunity to investigate the mechanisms mediating the personality-health relationship via experimental manipulation. Specifically, Study 2 investigated the effectiveness of the pamphlet in improving personality scores, mood, coping strategies, health behaviours, and salivary cortisol levels (measured at pre-treatment, 1-month post-treatment and 5-months post-treatment) in 200 first-year university students. Further, two modes of administration of the pamphlet were compared: pure selfadministration versus instruction accompanied by self-administration. Group differences in mood and cortisol reactivity to a visualisation stress task were also assessed. Very few significant differences were found between the two pamphlet administration forms. Both pamphlet forms were effective in improving mood states, some lifestyle habits (e.g., exercise), and salivary cortisol responses to the acute stress task compared to the control group. The strength of these effects ranged from small to medium, and all significant differences were between pre-treatment and the 1-month post-treatment session. The failure to observe differences at the 5-months post-treatment session may have been due to inadequacies of the treatment, or low statistical power for detecting effects from the final session due to the large attrition rate that had occurred by this session. Overall, while large treatment effect sizes were not found, the results could be construed as "clinically" significant when taking into account the low costs of implementing an information pamphlet in the larger community, and the potential benefits on individuals' stress responses and health behaviours. Study 3 aimed to investigate the treatment effects of the same self-administered pamphlet in 77 participants from the general community, who varied largely in age (19 - 77 years). Treatment and control groups were compared in terms of treatment compliance, cortisol levels, health behaviours, personality scores, perceived stress, mood, and coping styles (measured at pre-treatment, 2 weeks posttreatment, 3 months post-treatment, and 6 months post-treatment). In addition, group differences in cortisol reactivity to an acute cognitive stress task were examined. Home visits were arranged for each session to reduce sample attrition. Further, an intervention evaluation form was administered at each post-treatment session to verify and maintain treatment involvement. Several significant treatment effects were observed, including changes in personality scores and non-productive coping strategies, and the strength of these effects ranged from medium to very large. Most participants reported that they found the information pamphlet very appealing and helpful. In addition to the examination of intervention effects in the second and third studies, a path model that aimed to identify direct and mediating relationships between personality and concurrently measured disease was examined for the two samples (Chapter 5). This path model was based on a new integrative theory of personality-disease, which was developed. Eysenck's (1991) proposed personality-disease model formed the foundation of this new theory, and elements of several other generic personality-disease models were also incorporated. This theory was empirically tested using path analysis on the student and community data separately. Common pathways in the two models were then tested for invariance. Overall, most paths proposed by the integrative model were identified in one or both samples; thus, the model was generally supported. All common direct paths were statistically invariant (i.e., equivalent) in the two samples. While personality did not appear to directly predict illness, several significant indirect pathways were identified by which personality appears to affect disease incidence, such as via perceived stress, mood, coping styles, and physical risk factors. These findings appear to support Grossarth-Maticek's theory that personality affects disease incidence via stress responses, as well as other generic approaches (i.e., the personality-induced hyperreactivity model and the stress moderator model) that emphasise the stress-moderating effects of personality on health. However, support for the dangerous behaviours model was not found, which posits that certain personality dispositions seek risky behaviours (e.g., poor health behaviours such as smoking and alcohol consumption) that fit their personality. The final Chapter 6 directly compares the results of these three studies, and discusses their practical and theoretical significance in terms of Grossarth-Maticek's theory and research, views of critics, and other personality-health perspectives and research. In summary, the current studies appear to suggest that the GMPSI is a reliable and valid scale for the measurement of particular personality traits. Further, there appears to be evidence to suggest that personality traits can be changed by an intervention pamphlet. This information pamphlet also appears to be effective in significantly improving responses to stress, and these effects are more prominent in high-risk groups (i.e., subjects with extreme personality trait scores). Moreover, there is some evidence to suggest that personality may have direct effects on several mechanisms involved in the development of disease. Overall, this thesis demonstrates the importance of recognising the role of personality and stress in disease prevention and prediction by providing independent evidence for the benefits of treatment and mechanisms by which benefits may occur.

Chapters 8 & 9 focus on dementia. There is growing evidence of links between lifecourse inequalities and dementia. These are a mixture of structural issues such as poor education; mental health issues such as persistent mid-life depression; and physical conditions such as diabetes. Age related risk factors include social isolation and loneliness. These links reinforce the ‘accumulation of risks’ thesis and suggest that the causes of dementia are more complex and situated than is traditionally believed. In community-based populations, depression is estimated to affect about a fifth of people with Alzheimer's disease and a third of those with vascular dementia; up to half of care home residents with dementia have depression. Dementia produces high rates of anxiety symptoms particularly restlessness, agitation and fear; delirium is relatively common. The issues that protect quality of life of people with dementia are: psychological wellbeing, autonomy, having a meaningful role, acceptance, agency, promotion of selfhood and identity, relationships, financial security, and religious beliefs. Pre-dementia attributes such as personality type and how well a person adjusts to their diagnosis have a stronger influence on quality of life than having the condition per se. Most work capturing the perspectives of people living with dementia is done with those in the earlier stages.

"Introduction. The rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created unprecedent global challenges for health systems. National Healthcare Systems Hospitals adopted protective measures and medical equipment resources, exposing healthcare workers at risk for stress syndromes, subclinical mental health symptoms, and long-term occupational burnout. Health workers have had to deal with the most severe clinical cases in intensive care specialized operative division. Since the first months of the epidemic spread, some studies have established shown that nurses have shown symptoms of severe anxiety associated with peritraumatic dissociative experiences. Most of the studies examined the emotional impact of COVID 19 on health professionals but did not focus on different consider professionals roles and hospital departments workload. Objective. The aim of our study was to analyze the emotional characteristics of health workers during the II wave of coronavirus (November-December 2020), comparing the frontline (COVID 19) and second line (chronic diseases) hospital divisions and analyzing the differences between the health roles. Methods. We conduct a pilot study among health-workers. A sample of 28 healthcare workers (aged 23-62 years) were recruited from frontline and secondline hospital departments (L’Aquila, IT). The administered psychological battery was composed of n. 4 self-reports evaluating emotional variables (depression, anxiety, and stress) (DASS-21), personality traits (BFI-10), burnout risk (MBI), and perceived stress (PSS). Results. The results highlighted significant differences: older health workers were found to be more vulnerable than those who younger health workers; another interesting point was that healthcare workers serving in frontline wards showed symptoms of depersonalization. No significant difference for the type of role held. Conclusions. A prevention program should be activated to preserve frontline and older workers mental health. Earlier support could mitigate the effect of the pandemic experience, reducing the risk for emotional health workers' fragility."