title: Personality traits are associated with acute major depression across the age spectrum.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Psychological predictors, such as personality traits, have aroused growing interest as possible predictors of late-life depression outcome in old age. It remains, however, unclear whether the cross-sectional relationship between personality traits and depression occurrence reported in younger samples is also present in the elderly.
  
  
  METHODS
  Comparisons amongst 79 outpatients with DSM-IV major depression and 102 healthy controls included assessment of the five-factor model of personality (NEO PI-R), socio-demographic variables, physical health status, as well as depression features. Two sub-groups were considered, defined as young (25-50 years) and old (60-85 years) patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Depressed patients showed significantly higher levels of Neuroticism and lower levels of Extraversion, Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness compared to controls. Sequential logistic regression models confirmed that the combination of increased physical burden, levels of dependency, and increased Neuroticism strongly predicts the occurrence of acute depressive symptoms. In contrast, the levels of Neuroticism did not allow for differentiating late-life from young age depression. Increased physical burden and decreased depression severity were the main predictors for this distinction.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data indicate that personality factors and depression are related, independently of patients' age. Differences in this relationship are mainly due to the intensity of depressive symptoms rather than the patients' life period. They also stress the need to consider physical health, level of dependency and severity of symptoms when studying the relationship between personality traits and mood disorders.
authors: Division of Liaison Psychiatry and Crisis Intervention, University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland. Kerstin.Weber@hcuge.ch
authors: Kerstin
authors: K
authors: Weber
authors: Panteleimon
authors: P
authors: Giannakopoulos
authors: Jean-Pierre
authors: JP
authors: Bacchetta
authors: Stéphanie
authors: S
authors: Quast
authors: François R
authors: FR
authors: Herrmann
authors: Christophe
authors: C
authors: Delaloye
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Ghisletta
authors: Anik
authors: A
authors: De Ribaupierre
authors: Alessandra
authors: A
authors: Canuto
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D010045:Outpatients; D010551:Personality; D012720:Severity of Illness Index