Higher Levels Of Neuroticism Research Articles

Psychosocial correlates of well-being among people who engage in online health-seeking behaviour

We examined the extent to which neuroticism, health anxiety, social anxiety, and social support predicted well-being in a sample of online users engaging in health-seeking behaviour. We used a cross-sectional online survey to recruit participants who engaged in online health-seeking behaviour. The study included 350 participants who were recruited online using social media platforms such as Reddit and Twitter. A multiple regression was conducted to examine the relationships between neuroticism, health anxiety, social anxiety, social support, and well-being. Participants completed a battery of measures on Survey Monkey consisting of a demographic questionnaire, International Personality Item Pool Big Five Markers, Leibowitz Social Anxiety scale, Short Health Anxiety Inventory, World Health Organisation Five Well-Being Index, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. We found significant negative correlations between the indicated psychological variables and well-being, indicating that higher levels of neuroticism, social anxiety, and health anxiety were related to lower levels of well-being. We also found significant, positive correlations between the social support variables and well-being, indicating that more social support was correlated with better well-being. The results of the multiple regression demonstrate that neuroticism, health anxiety, family support, and friend support were significant predictors of well-being.

Health literacy across personality traits among older adults: cross-sectional evidence from Switzerland

This research aims to better understand the association of personality traits (PT)—Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism—with health literacy (HL) skills of adults aged 58 years and older in a nationally representative sample from Switzerland. Analyses were conducted on a subsample (n = 1546) of respondents living in Switzerland from wave 8 (2019/2020) of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). PT were assessed with the Big-Five inventory ten (BFI-10). HL was measured using the short version of the European Health Literacy Survey questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q16). We used multivariable regressions to explore how respondents' PT are independently associated with (1) the HLS-EU-Q16 and (2) seven sub-indices derived from this HL scale. Results demonstrated that even when controlling for social, regional, and health characteristics, PT were significantly associated with HL among older adults in Switzerland. More open individuals showed better HL competencies. By contrast, individuals who scored higher on neuroticism expressed more difficulties regarding concrete health-relevant tasks or situations. These findings call for public health policies targeting older adults with lower levels of openness who are less likely to engage in self-examination, and individuals with higher levels of neuroticism who tend to experience more negative emotions. Moreover, health information and communication strategies content development that accounts for different personality types and addresses the needs of individuals with low levels of openness and high neuroticism may help improve HL among older adults whose personalities may otherwise put them at a disadvantage in handling health information.

Examining the influence of an additive genetic risk score of HPA axis polymorphisms with recent stress on depression onset in emerging adults

Prior research suggests that HPA-axis genetic variation moderates the association between stress and depression, but has historically focused on individual variants with small effects. Recent studies, however, have tested an additive genetic score of biologically-plausible variants (multilocus genetic profile score; MGPS) in the HPA-axis (e.g., Pagliaccio et al., 2014). Among adolescents, an HPA-MGPS moderated the effects of stress on depressive symptoms; higher HPA-MGPS predicted heightened depressive symptoms when stress was high, but reduced symptoms when stress was low (Starr & Huang, 2019), consistent with differential susceptibility theory (Belsky & Pluess, 2009). Whether this same effect extends to emerging adults, however, is untested. Thus, the current study will test whether an HPA-MGPS interacts with chronic and episodic stress to predict depression onset in emerging adults. We hypothesize that an HPA-MGPS will interact with episodic (total, interpersonal), and chronic (interpersonal, non-interpersonal) stress, to predict depression onset, such that a higher HPA-MGPS will predict depression when stress is high, but reduced risk when stress is low. Participants (n=387) from the Youth Emotion Project, a longitudinal study of risk for emotional disorders that oversampled high school juniors for high levels of neuroticism, gave DNA and completed annual diagnostic and life stress interviews. Five years of data will be used. DNA was genotyped for 14 HPA-axis variants for inclusion in an HPA-MGPS. Hypotheses will be tested using Cox regression; results will be available by the time of the conference. Results will be discussed considering implications for future MGPS research and differential susceptibility theory.

Personality variables in people with obesity

Obesity remains one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide. Its prevalence accelerates and exhibits a trend to increase more rapidly than overweight. Obesity is linked to diabetes, heart and vascular diseases, most cancers and a greater chronic and infectious disease burden. Risk factors for obesity are varied, with genetic background, physical activity, sleep quantity and quality, diet, and sociological, economic, environmental aspects among the most frequently mentioned. Psychological factors, especially those related to personality, also remain an important cause underlying the development and persistence of obesity. In this review of studies, significant differences in the intensity of personality dimensions were observed between obese and non-obese people, especially in the level of neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience. The aim of the review was to discuss the correlations of specific personality traits in patients with obesity. High levels of neuroticism and low levels of conscientiousness are recurring findings across the studies. In this summary, attention is also given to other personality traits. It was noted that extraversion and openness to experience distinguished obese people from the general population, but without a clear positive or negative association – the cited studies show a statistically significant correlation between the levels of body mass index and these two personality dimensions, but the direction of the correlation is not uniform across the studies. Considering the above observations, it is possible that there are important differences in the obese population, as clinical experience shows that the group is homogeneous neither in the areas of physical health nor in the area of styles of coping with stress, which may be significant for determining the association with personal traits. The findings of the review show that the analysis of the relationships between personality traits in obese people can be an important factor in the diagnosis and follow-up of these patients.

Dynamic Changes Of Physiological And Psychological Parameters Of Young Persons As Asthenia Risk Factors

Asthenic syndrome is the most important problem of the modern stage of development of human society, which is the most important component of many pathological conditions or risk factors for diseases. The purpose of the study is to determine some physiological and psychological parameters in young people in dynamics at different levels of intellectual load and evaluate their role in the formation of asthenic syndrome. Materials and Methods: The study involved 160 3rd year students of the Medical Institute of Moscow State University. N.P. Ogarev, divided into four groups according to the type of higher nervous activity (HNA), based on the indicators "Extraversion / Introversion" and "Neuroticism", determined by the Eysenck scale. We assessed the characteristics of emotional balance, functional parameters of autonomic regulation, features of cognitive functions in young people in different periods of training load. Results: the indicator of neuroticism correlated with the severity of asthenic syndrome in young people. Persons with a high level of neuroticism more often revealed maladjustment of mental processes, a decrease in cognitive functions, and an increase in emotional instability during the period of intense intellectual loads. After a period of increased intellectual load, asthenia occurs significantly more often in females. Features of autonomic regulation have little effect on the development of asthenia. The exceptions were individuals with a high level of neuroticism. In these groups, the stress of hemodynamic mechanisms was occurred frequently.

The default mode network and rumination in individuals at-risk for depression.

The default mode network (DMN) is a network of brain regions active during rest and self-referential thinking. Individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) show increased or decreased DMN activity, relative to controls. DMN activity has been linked to a tendency to ruminate in MDD. It is unclear if individuals who are at-risk for, but who have no current or past history of depression, also show differential DMN activity associated with rumination. We investigated whether females with high levels of neuroticism with no current or lifetime mood or anxiety disorders (n=25) show increased DMN activation, specifically when processing negative self-referential information, compared with females with average levels of neuroticism (n=28). Participants heard criticism and praise during functional MRI scans in a 3T Siemens Prisma scanner. The at-risk group showed greater activation in two DMN regions, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL), after hearing criticism, but not praise (relative to females with average levels of neuroticism). Criticism-specific activation in the IPL was significantly correlated with rumination. Individuals at-risk for depression therefore may have an underlying neurocognitive vulnerability to use a brain network typically involved in thinking about oneself to preferentially ruminate about negative, rather than positive, information.

Can attitudes toward God buffer the negative effect of neuroticism on life satisfaction

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has increased stress and anxiety and decreased life satisfaction, especially for those with a high level of neuroticism. In a religious country such as Indonesia, this pandemic may cause people, including college students, to feel anger toward God. Previous studies found that certain behaviours moderate the effect of neuroticism on life satisfaction. This study investigated the moderating effects of positive and negative attitudes toward God. A moderation analysis was performed on data obtained from 367 Christian and 547 Muslim students from 10 universities in the Jakarta metropolitan area. The findings revealed that a positive attitude toward God significantly moderates the connection between neuroticism and life satisfaction for Christians, whereas a negative attitude toward God does not moderate the same connection for both Muslims and Christians. The implications of this study are discussed below.

CE-452780-4 NEUROTICISM AND THE OCCURRENCE OF ATRIAL FIBRILLATION: EVIDENCE FROM OBSERVATIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGIC AND MENDELIAN RANDOMIZATION

The association between neuroticism and atrial fibrillation (AF) has not been explored. This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiologic and causal relationship between neuroticism and AF. This study included subjects without AF from the UK Biobank nationwide population-based prospective cohort. The 10-year risk of AF, according to the neuroticism score, a summary score based on the self-questionnaire of 12 neurotic behaviour domains, was assessed. The causal relationship between neuroticism and AF was assessed using a two-sample summary-level Mendelian randomization (MR) with the inverse variance weighted (IVW) and weighted-median (WM) method. Among 394,834 participants (aged 56.3 ± 8.1 years, 45.9% male), 23,509 (6.0%) participants were diagnosed with AF during a 10-year follow-up. Female or older age groups were more likely to have higher neuroticism scores compared to male participants with younger ages below 60. The 10-year risk of incident AF significantly increased according to the increase of neuroticism score, after adjusting for possible confounders, including demographic, socioeconomic, lifestyle factors, and comorbidities (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.03 per 1-standard deviation [SD] increase, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.05, P<0.001). Among participants who developed AF during follow-up, the AF onset age was significantly younger in those with higher baseline neuroticism scores (onset age 69.7 ± 6.7 years in the lowest neuroticism score group; 66.5 ± 7.6 years in the highest score group). The two-sample MR analysis showed a significant causal relationship between an increase in neuroticism score and increased risk of AF (Odds ratio [OR] by IVW method 1.57, 95% CI [1.01-2.44], P=0.046; OR by WM method 1.57, 95% CI [1.15-2.14], P=0.005) (Figure). A higher level of neuroticism in individuals was causally associated with incident AF and independently predicted AF with earlier onset. Adequate mental health management and lifestyle modification, along with risk factor management of neuroticism, may reduce the future risk of AF.

Predicting Satisfaction With Life and Affect Balance Using Trait Interactions

There is robust support for the finding that subjective well-being (SWB) relates positively to extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness; and negatively to neuroticism (Soto, 2015), but little research has examined how SWB can be predicted from interactions between traits. It was hypothesized that conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness would moderate the relationship between neuroticism and SWB, as measured by satisfaction with life (SWL) and affect balance (AB). In Study 1, self-reports of the Big Five personality traits, SWL, and AB were collected via MTurk (N=1035). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to predict SWL and AB from interactions between traits. The relationship between neuroticism and SWL was moderated by conscientiousness (b=.15, p=.02) and extraversion (b=11, p=.03), while the relationship between neuroticism and AB was moderated by conscientiousness (b=.09, p=.02) and agreeableness (b=.09, p=.03). Positive personality traits (defined as extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness within this study) were positively related to SWB at high levels of neuroticism, but unrelated to SWB at low levels of neuroticism. This was explored further using a student population in Study 2 (N=151), and the results were partially replicated. This study highlights the importance of considering more than one trait at a time when predicting important outcomes such as SWB.

A DAE perspective on the interface between adaptive and maladaptive personality development: A conceptual replication

This study aimed to examine Dispositional, Adaptational, and Environmental (DAE) variables at the intersection of adaptive and maladaptive personality development as a conceptual replication of the DAE-model (Asendorpf & Motti-Stefanidi, European Journal of Personality, 32(3), 167-185, 2018). In a community sample of adolescents (N = 463; Mage = 13.6 years; 51% female) hypotheses-driven cross-lagged panel models were tested. Longitudinal associations between Dispositional (i.e., neuroticism, disagreeableness and unconscientiousness), Adaptational (i.e., social problems), and Environmental (i.e., perceived quality of the parent-child relationship) variables were investigated. The results partially support the DAE hypotheses. High levels of neuroticism, disagreeableness and social problems were found to predict the perceived quality of the parent-child relationship. In turn, the perceived quality of the parent-child relationship was found to predict levels of unconscientiousness and social problems. No mediation effects were found and, in contrast to DAE hypotheses, results did not indicate bidirectional influences between dispositions and adaptations. The results shed light on differential person-environment interactions that shape personality development and the importance of the perceived quality of the parent-child relationship. These findings provide insight in pathways of personality development, that may lead to personality pathology, and demonstrate the value of the DAE model as a structured guideline that provides testable hypotheses.

Personality traits as mediators in the association between SIRT1 rs12415800 polymorphism and depressive symptoms among Chinese college students.

Previous research has linked polymorphisms in the SIRT1 gene to depressive symptoms, particularly in Chinese individuals. However, it is not clear how personality traits may contribute to this association. To explore the potential mediating effect of personality traits, we utilized a mediation model to examine the relationship between the SIRT1 rs12415800 polymorphism and depressive symptoms in 787 Chinese college students. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale, while personality traits were measured using the Big Five Inventory (BFI). Our analysis indicated a significant association between the SIRT1 rs12415800 polymorphism and depressive symptoms, with this relationship partially mediated by the personality traits of neuroticism and conscientiousness. Specifically, individuals who were heterozygous for the rs12415800 polymorphism and had higher levels of conscientiousness were less likely to experience depressive symptoms. Conversely, those who were homozygous for the rs12415800 polymorphism and had higher levels of neuroticism were more likely to experience depressive symptoms. Our results suggest that personality traits, particularly neuroticism and conscientiousness, may play a critical role in the association between the SIRT1 rs12415800 polymorphism and depressive symptoms among Chinese college students. These findings highlight the importance of considering both genetic factors and personality traits when exploring the etiology of depressive symptoms in this population.

Psychological features of patients with Takotsubo syndrome: cross-sectional study

Objective. We aimed to assess the psychological state and personality-adaptive potential in patients with Takotsubo syndrome (TS), and to use the results to construct a prognostic model for the risk of developing the disease.&#x0D; Materials and methods. A total of 38 patients with TS were examined 1014 days after the disease onset. The mean age of the men was 63.814.73 years, and the women, 33 (86.8%) years. The control group included 40 people; their average age was 66.610.4 years, of which 39 (97.5%) were women. Their psychological state and stress resistance were assessed using the following tests and questionnaires: G. Eysenck's personality questionnaire; the hardiness survey; the N.V. Kirsheva and N.V. Ryabchikov personality stress resistance self-test; the scale of perceived stress; the PSM-25 LemurTessierFillion psychological stress measure; the SpielbergerKhanin anxiety scale; the Hamilton Anxiety Scale; the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale; the Beck Depression Scale; and the MontgomeryAsberg depression rating scale.&#x0D; Results. G. Eysenck's personality questionnaire showed that patients with TS had a higher level of neuroticism (14.63.7 and 11.44.1, respectively; p 0.01) and tendency to introversion (9.43.3 and 12.43.5, respectively; p 0.001) than the control group. According to the SpielbergerKhanin psychometric scale, reactive anxiety was higher in the TS group (46.49.1 and 37.011.4, respectively; p 0.0001), and there was also a tendency toward personal anxiety (45.17.3 and 41.811.1, respectively; p 0.05). For all three analyzed scales designed to assess internal anxiety, it was found that in patients with TS, this component of the psyche was more pronounced (HARS: 21.84.8 and 16.15.4, respectively; p 0.0001; HADS: 13.13.6 and 7.43.0, respectively; p 0.0001). Depression, ranging from mild to severe, was more common in patients with TS, according to all questionnaires (HADS: 100% and 40%, respectively; p 0.05; BDI: 73.7% and 27%, respectively; p 0.05; MADRS: 97.4% and 62.5%, respectively, p 0.05). According to the hardiness test, the TS group had low indicators of overall hardiness (71.418.0 and 82.619.7, respectively; p 0.05), involvement (32.59.1 and 36.88.9, respectively; p 0.05), and control (23.37.3 and 29.27.8, respectively; p 0.01) compared to the control group. Stress resistance was also significantly lower in patients with TS (38.96.4 and 34.17.3, respectively; p 0.001). Based on the data from the questionnaires and scales, using the classification tree method, an integral model for predicting the development of TS with a high predictive value (96%) was built.&#x0D; Conclusion. Anxiety and depressive disorders make a significant contribution to the development of TS. Personality traits like introversion, neuroticism, and increased susceptibility to stress with low stress resistance and hardiness also play a role. This suggests the need for timely diagnosis of psychological disorders and their correction in people with this personality type, especially postmenopausal women. Prompt intervention may help prevent or reduce the risk of developing the disease.

Neuroticism modulates the qualitative effects of inferior parietal tDCS on negatively-valenced memories

For individuals with increased levels of neuroticism, experiencing criticism or receiving negative feedback has been associated with worse psychological and cognitive outcomes. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can change cognitive processes in clinical populations. We bilaterally stimulated the posterior inferior parietal lobule (pIPL), a critical superficial node of the default model network. We investigated how baseline neuroticism modulates the impact of bilateral tDCS to pIPL on qualitative measures of memory after hearing criticism, hypothesizing that cathodal stimulation of the IPL would offer qualitative memory improvements for individuals with higher levels of neuroticism. Ninety individuals from the community were randomly assigned to receive anodal, cathodal, or sham stimulation while they were exposed to critical comments before and after stimulation. Participants then recalled the critical comments, and their linguistic responses were analyzed using Pennebaker's Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software, a quantitative analysis software for linguistic data. Results showed that for individuals receiving cathodal tDCS, higher neuroticism scores corresponded with greater proportions of non-personal language (i.e., words such as “us,” “they,” or “other” instead of “I” or “me”) when recalling negative feedback. For individuals with higher neuroticism, cathodal tDCS stimulation, rather than anodal or sham, of the pIPL prompted increased emotional distancing and perspective taking strategies when recalling criticism. These results further highlight the state-dependent nature of tDCS effects and the role of the IPL in interpersonal processing – a clinically meaningful outcome that current tDCS studies solely examining quantitative measures of memory (e.g., task-based accuracy or speed) do not reveal.

Correlates of chronic depression in the general population: results from the CoLaus|PsyCoLaus study

PurposePrevious population-based studies have partially provided inconsistent results regarding the co-variates of chronic depression, which were likely to be attributable to methodological limitations. The present paper that compared people with chronic major depressive disorder (MDD), non-chronic MDD and no mood disorder in the community focused on specific atypical and melancholic depression symptoms and subtypes of MDD, family history (FH) of mood disorders, measured physical cardio-vascular risk factors (CVRF), personality traits, coping style and adverse life-events.MethodsData stemmed from a population-based cohort including 3618 participants (female 53%, n=1918; mean age 50.9 years, s.d. 8.8 years). Among them 563 had a lifetime history of chronic MDD, 1060 of non-chronic MDD and 1995 of no mood disorder. Diagnostic and FH information were elicited through semi-structured interviews, CVRF were assessed through physical investigations.ResultsThe major findings were that chronic MDD was associated with increase in appetite/weight and suicidal ideation/attempts during the most severe episode, higher exposure to life-events in adulthood, higher levels of neuroticism, lower levels of extraversion and lower levels of informal help-seeking behavior but less frequent FH of MDD compared to non-chronic MDD.ConclusionChronic MDD is associated with a series of potential modifiable risk factors which are accessible via psychotherapeutic approaches that may improve the course of chronic MDD.

The Personality and Resilience of Competitive Athletes as BMW Drivers-Data from India, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain.

Individual differences in personality and resilience are related to a variety of social behaviors. The current study sought to answer the question of whether BMW drivers exhibit different personality profiles and resilience levels compared with drivers of other car brands. An international study was carried out in India, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain on a sample of 448 athletes using the 20-item Mini-IPIP and the Resilience Scale. The results of BMW drivers (n = 91) were compared with the results of drivers of other German car brands (n = 357). BMW drivers were characterized by higher neuroticism compared with drivers of other German car brands. They also showed higher resiliency, both in terms of total score and scores on the subscales of: personal coping competences and tolerance of negative emotions, tolerance of failures and perceiving life as a challenge, and optimistic attitude towards life and capacity for self-mobilization in difficult situations. The greatest difference was observed for the factor of tolerance of failures and perceiving life as a challenge. Using the Dwass-Steel-Critchlow-Fligner (DSCF) pairwise comparison test, gender differences between athletes (as BMW drivers and drivers of other German car brands, respectively) were discussed. Additionally, the results of the main logistic regression analyses emphasized that neuroticism represents a better predictor of BMW preference in the case of athletes (as drivers) than the scores obtained for resilience. BMW drivers differed from drivers of other German car brands only with regard to neuroticism. A higher level of neuroticism can affect mental health and the overall quality of life in athletes; aggression and distress management are essential. Athletes (as BMW drivers) also showed differences in resiliency levels. Understanding the mechanisms of behavior among BMW drivers is possible through considering their personality and individual differences.

The relationship between women’s personality traits and addiction to social networking sites on the example of Facebook

IntroductionSocial network addicts may differ significantly from non-addicts in terms of personality traits, such as agreeableness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness. Addicts may be prone to negative emotions and unpleasant experiences, which may be associated with a higher level of neuroticism. Addicts often fail to cope in the real world, often experience negative emotions, quickly give up their goals, see themselves and others in a negative light, and escape into virtual reality. The virtual world is devoid of the anxiety that an individual faces in real life interactions, hence the tendency for addiction among people with higher levels of neuroticism. The primary cause of Internet Addiction may be innate temperamental traits (i.e., impulsiveness of behavior and impulsiveness of decisions) that influence the susceptibility to functional and chemical addictions. According to the concept of addictive personality, people who have this problem are prone to addiction as such, regardless of what they are addicted to.ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to generally assess the degree of women’s dependence on social networking sites on the example of Facebook, taking into account personality traits according to the five-factor model of personality, the so-called Big Five by Costa and McCraeMethodsThe study included 556 women. This survey-based study was carried out using the questionnaire technique. The following research tools were used to analyze behavioral addictions in adult women: the Bergen Face- book Addiction Scale (BFAS), the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO FFI) and the author’s questionnaire.ResultsAmong the surveyed women, 69.6% were average Facebook users, of whom 16.4% had scores indicating possible Facebook addiction, and 14.0% had scores indicating addiction. The higher the neuroticism, the more serious the Facebook addiction (r = 0.26; p &lt; 0.001; R2 = 6.7%). A weak negative correlation was obtained for the agreeableness subscale e (r = -0.08; p &lt; 0.05; R2 = 7.2%). A weak negative correlation was also obtained for the subscale of conscientiousness (r = -0.16; p &lt; 0.001; R2 = 2.6%). There was no statistically significant correlation between the log10 score obtained on the BFAS and the score on the NEO-FFI subscales of extraversion (r = 0.04; p = 0.40) and openness to experience (r = 0.04; p = 0.30).ConclusionsThe personality types of the studied women indicated relationships in terms of behavioral addictions. Women characterized by neuroticism showed stronger addiction to Facebook. Women characterized by high conscientiousness were at lower risk of behavioral addictions, while agreeableness as a personality trait significantly protected the surveyed women against Facebook addiction.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Major Depressive Disorder in an International Multisite Wilson Disease Registry.

Psychiatric symptoms are frequently reported in Wilson disease (WD); however, systematic assessments with validated measures are lacking. We aim to report the prevalence and clinical correlates for major depressive disorder (MDD) as resulting from a multisite international WD registry. All patients enrolled in the WD registry received structured psychiatric evaluations (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale, Perceived Stress Scale), laboratory tests, hepatology, and neurological assessments. We present the analysis of the data collected at enrollment for the first 3 years (N= 62). Thirty-seven percent (23) had a lifetime history (MDD), and 6% (4) met the criteria for an active major depressive episode. Depression was self-reported in 30.51% (19) at WD diagnosis. Patients with MDD had worse mental health quality-of-life (QOL) scores (median 43 vs 53.6, P= 0.006), higher severe anxiety (13.04% vs 0), higher perceived stress (median 18 vs 9, P < 0.003), and higher levels of neuroticism (median 8 vs 5.0, P= 0.002). We found no significant difference in physical health QOL and severity of neurological or liver disease. There was no significant difference in copper parameters or liver tests in those with MDD and without. The limitations of our study consist of the small sample size, the cross-sectional report, and the lack of brain copper measurements. Lifetime MDD is highly prevalent in WD and associated with worse mental health QOL. We did not find a significant association among liver disease, neurological disease laboratory tests, and MDD. Screening for depression should be considered in patients with WD.

Rural-urban differences in personality traits and well-being in adulthood.

One large focus of personality psychology is to understand the biopsychosocial factors responsible for adult personality development and well-being change. However, little is known about how macro-level contextual factors, such as rurality-urbanicity, are related to personality development and well-being change. The present study uses data from two large longitudinal studies of U.S. Americans (MIDUS, HRS) to examine whether there are rural-urban differences in levels and changes in the Big Five personality traits and well-being (i.e., psychological well-being, and life satisfaction) in adulthood. Multilevel models showed that Americans who lived in more rural areas tended to have lower levels of openness, conscientiousness, and psychological well-being, and higher levels of neuroticism. With the exception of psychological well-being (which replicated across MIDUS and HRS), rural-urban differences in personality traits were only evident in the HRS sample. The effect of neuroticism was fully robust to the inclusion of socio-demographic and social network covariates, but other effects were partially robust (i.e., conscientiousness and openness) or were not robust at all (i.e., psychological well-being). In both samples, there were no rural-urban differences in Big Five or well-being change. We discuss the implications of these findings for personality and rural health research.

Well-being in social interactions: Examining personality-situation dynamics in face-to-face and computer-mediated communication.

Decades of research show that people's social lives are linked to their well-being. Yet, research on the relationship between social interactions and well-being has been largely inconclusive with regard to the effects of person-situation interactions, such as the interplay between contextual factors (e.g., interactions occurring in physical vs. digital contexts, different interaction partners) and dispositional tendencies (e.g., Big Five personality traits). Here, we report on exploratory and confirmatory findings from three large studies of college students (Study 1: N = 1,360; Study 2: N = 851; Study 3: N = 864) who completed a total of 139,363 experience sampling surveys (reporting on 87,976 social interactions). We focus on the effects of different modes of communication (face-to-face [FtF] interactions, computer-mediated communication [CMC], and mixed episodes [FtF + CMC]), and types of interaction partners (close peers, family members, and weak ties). Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we found that FtF interactions and mixed episodes were associated with highest well-being on the within-person level, and that these effects were particularly pronounced for individuals with high levels of neuroticism. CMC was related to lower well-being than FtF interactions, but higher well-being than not socializing at all. Regarding the type of interaction partner, individuals reported higher well-being after interactions with close peers than after interactions with family members and weak ties, and the difference between close peers and weak ties was larger for FtF interactions than for CMC. We discuss these findings with regard to theories of person-situation interactions and research on well-being and social interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Appointment attendance behaviors in multiple sclerosis: Understanding the factors that differ between no shows, short notice cancellations, and attended appointments.

There has yet to be an examination of how appointment attendance behaviors in multiple sclerosis (MS) are related to scheduling metrics and certain demographic, clinical, and behavioral factors such as cognitive functioning and personality traits. This study aimed to examine the factors that differ between no shows (NS), short notice cancellations (SNC), and attended appointments. Participants (n=110) were persons with MS who were enrolled in a larger cross-sectional study, during which they completed a battery of neuropsychological measures. Data about their appointments in three MS-related clinics the year prior to their study evaluation were extracted from the medical record. Bivariate analyses were done, with post-hoc tests conducted with Bonferroni corrections if there was an overall group difference. A higher number of SNC were noted during the winter, with 22.4% being due to the weather. SNC were also more common on Thursdays, but less frequent during the early morning time slots (7am to 9am). In contrast, NS were associated with lower annual income, weaker healthcare provider relationships, lower self-efficacy, higher levels of neuroticism, depressive symptom severity, and health distress, and greater cognitive difficulties, particularly with prospective memory. While SNC are related to clinic structure and situational factors like the weather, NS may be more influenced by behavioral issues, such as difficulty remembering an appointment and high levels of distress. These findings highlight potential targets for reducing the number of missed appointments in the clinic, providing opportunities for improved healthcare efficiency and most importantly health.