Browsing by Author "Junni, Jussi"

Background: Depression is one of the most prevalent disabling mental disorders worldwide. Its relation to the personality of the patient has been a topic of interest both in history and modern research. Understanding the relationship between personality traits and depression will help to develop suitable models of treatment for depression. The Five-Factor Personality Model (FFM, a.k.a. Big Five) is one of the most established scientific personality models, with its traits, namely neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness. Connection between neuroticism and depression as well as between extraversion and depression is well known in modern scholarship, but no unambiguous results of connections between other traits and depression exist. High neuroticism seems to function as a risk factor that has a strong connection with Major Depression Episodes, but the moderating effects of the other personality traits are to be studied more deeply. In addition, there have been diverse results whether sex/gender has or has not a trait-independent role in predicting the severity of depression. Aims: Thus, the present study strives for answering the following questions: 1. What is the correlation between individual five-factor personality traits and depression? 2. How does neuroticism trait function as a risk factor for depression? 3. How does sex/gender covariate with the depression? Methods: The data of the present study has been obtained from The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study (Lasten Sepelvaltimotautien Riskitekijät, LASERI). The project has begun in 1980 and its 27-year follow-up was performed in 2007, when five-factor personality traits and depression score were measured as well. Personality traits and the depression score from 1,714 of the original 3,596 subjects were measured with NEO-FFI-M and BDI II. The participants were divided into four groups on the basis of the median values of neuroticism and extraversion traits. Results and conclusions: High neuroticism has a strong connection with depression, but high extraversion has a moderate opposite influence. No connection between the other traits and depression was found. Women tend to have higher scores of depression than men, but the sex influence is mediated by higher neuroticism among women. Further research is needed on possible trait-independent gender influence. Cross-sectional studies based on population data bring forth valuable information about links between gender, personality and depression, but they do not permit possible changes in personality or causal relations to be studied. Therefore, more profound research in longitudinal paradigm is needed.