Introverted and neurotic adults are more likely to experience depressive and anxiety symptoms.
- Both depression and anxiety are characterized by increased neuroticism and introversion.
- These associations are strongest during adolescence.
- This is because the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with many personality traits, is not fully developed until adulthood.
Worldwide, an estimated 5% of adults suffer from depression, according to the WHO. “The heterogeneous nature of this psychological illness, complicated by the categorical diagnosis of depression which is based on a set of symptoms, each with its own etiology, has constituted an obstacle to research,” said researchers from the universities of Cambridge (UK) and Virginia (US). In a recent study, they wanted to examine the links between personality traits, various behavioral, cognitive and physical measures, and depression and anxiety throughout life.
Depression: more risk for introverted and neurotic people
For the purposes of the work, published in the journal Journal of Affective Disorders, the scientists recruited 1,494 people aged 6 to 85, many of whom had experienced episodes of depression and some suffered from chronic depression. Then, they created a questionnaire that helps classify personality traits. Participants were asked whether they had ever suffered from depression and, if so, when and to what degree. Finally, the team used a variety of techniques to find patterns in the data, one of which involved a machine learning application.
According to the results, volunteers with certain personality traits, such as introversion or neuroticism, were more likely to experience depressive and anxious episodes. “Comorbidity had an additive effect on personality vulnerability,” can we read in the research.
“Depression was only associated with personality in adolescence”
The authors also found that associated personality traits changed over the course of a person’s life. “Dimensionally, depression was only associated with personality in adolescence, where it was positively correlated with neuroticism and negatively correlated with extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.” According to the researchers, this makes sense because the prefrontal cortex, which has been linked to many personality traits, is not fully developed until adulthood.
However, they clarified that their research had limitations. “Due to the cross-sectional design, it is not possible to draw conclusions about causal relationships between personality and depression,” the team wrote.
