Posted by SLS on April 7, 2009, at 12:51:46
I came across a Mayo Clinic study that reported that people who are pessimistic or have a depressive thought-style are likely to die earlier in life. I included the abstract at the bottom of this post.
I remember reading an article long ago in Scientific American that reported similar results for the presence of cynicism. This was an unexpected finding during a time when so much attention was being paid to the "type-A" personality and its association with a higher rate of heart-attacks. When parsed, the data pointed to cynicism rather than anger, impatience, or perfectionism as the trait associated with premature death.
- Scott*******************************************
Pessimistic, Anxious, and Depressive Personality Traits Predict All-Cause Mortality: The Mayo Clinic Cohort Study of Personality and AgingBrandon R. Grossardt , MS, James H. Bower , MD, MSc, Yonas E. Geda , MD, MSc, Robert C. Colligan , PhD, Walter A. Rocca , MD, MPH
Abstract
Objective: To study the association between several personality traits and all-cause mortality. Methods: We established a historical cohort of 7216 subjects who completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) for research at the Mayo Clinic from 1962 to 1965, and who resided within a 120-mile radius centered in Rochester, MN. A total of 7080 subjects (98.1%) were followed over four decades either actively (via a direct or proxy telephone interview) or passively (via review of medical records or by obtaining their death certificates). We examined the association of pessimistic, anxious, and depressive personality traits (as measured using MMPI scales) with all-cause mortality. Results: A total of 4634 subjects (65.5%) died during follow-up. Pessimistic, anxious, and depressive personality traits were associated with increased all-cause mortality in both men and women. In addition, we observed a linear trend of increasing risk from the first to the fourth quartile for all three scales. Results were similar in additional analyses considering the personality scores as continuous variables, in analyses combining the three personality traits into a composite neuroticism score, and in several sets of sensitivity analyses. These associations remained significant even when personality was measured early in life (ages 2039 years). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that personality traits related to neuroticism are associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality even when they are measured early in life.
Key Words: mortality, pessimism, anxiety, depression, neuroticism, MMPI
poster:SLS
thread:889223
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090330/msgs/889223.html