title: Personality characteristics of asthma patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Asthma, similarly to other chronic conditions, is strongly influenced by psychological factors. Previous studies have not established the personality characteristics of adult asthma patients as compared to non-patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study the psychological characteristics of adult asthma patients in comparison to a pattern drawn up for the Portuguese population. To study the relationships between the personality and the severity and duration of the disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  Outpatients of the Immunallergology and Pulmonology units of the São João Hospital suffering from asthma responded to the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R). Patients with co-morbidity factors were not excluded. The doctor who attended them classified the severity of the asthma according to the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA). Relationships between the personality and the severity/duration of the disease were analysed using the ANOVA models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  300 asthma patients aged between 17 and 79 were studied. Of these, 75% were female; the great majority had intermittent/light persistent asthma (71%); 17% had moderate persistent asthma and 12% had severe persistent asthma. The duration of the disease was less than 10 years in 34% and over 23 years in 35%. The asthma patients had higher Neuroticism scores (p < 0.001), with the other facets (except impulsiveness) equally high. All the remaining domains--Extroversion, Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness--had lower scores than the control group (p < 0.001). Both Extroversion and Openness to Experience decrease with growth in the severity (p = 0.003; p = 0.009) and the duration of the disease (p = 0.006; p = 0.013). Neuroticism increases in tandem with the severity of the disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study shows the predominance of Neurotic characteristics and lowered Extroversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness characteristics in asthmatics as compared to the general Portuguese population. Decreased Extroversion and Openness to Experience are observed as the severity and duration of the disease increase. Further studies are necessary to clarify the relationships between personality and the severity and duration of the disease.
authors.affiliation: Psiquiatra. Serviço de Psiquiatria, Hospital de S. João, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal. lia.fernandes@mail.telepac.pt
authors.forename: Lia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fonseca
authors.forename: Josefina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: Marianela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vaz
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Winck
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barreto
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality