title: Personality features in subjective cognitive impairment and mild cognitive impairment--early indicators of dementia?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of the present study was to investigate patterns of personality in patients with subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), compared to healthy controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed24 patients with SCI, 35 patients with MCI and 26 healthy controls with the self-report questionnaire Swedish Universities Scales of Personality measuring aspects of neuroticism/anxiety proneness, extraversion, and aggression-hostility.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with SCI and MCI showed significantly more Somatic Trait Anxiety, Psychic Trait Anxiety and Stress Susceptibility than healthy controls. Moreover, there was a significant increase in Detachment in patients with MCI and a significant decrease in Adventure Seeking in patients with SCI, relative to healthy controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with SCI and MCI presented specific patterns of personality alterations with higher scores in traits related to anxiety proneness and aggression-hostility and lower in traits of extraversion. In most subscales differences followed a sequential pattern with gradually increasing scores from healthy controls, to patients with SCI and further to MCI. The groups differed in amount and type of symptoms, suggesting that patterns of personality may be related to degree of cognitive impairment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. birgitta.ausen@ki.se
authors.forename: Birgitta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ausén
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Edman
authors.forename: Ove
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Almkvist
authors.forename: Nenad
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bogdanovic
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D004493:Education; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010551:Personality; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology