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Broad and specific personality dimensions associated with major depression in a nationally representative sample
Brian J Cox1, Lachlan A McWilliams, Murray W Enns
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
Comprehensive Psychiatry
|June 30, 2004
Summary
Self-criticism is strongly linked to major depression in a large national study. Other personality traits may be associated with depression due to shared factors like anxiety or distress.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Psychology
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Previous research linked broad (neuroticism, extraversion) and specific (self-criticism, interpersonal dependency) personality dimensions to major depression.
- These findings were often based on limited study groups.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between personality dimensions and major depression in a large, nationally representative sample.
- To determine if self-criticism is a robust predictor of major depression, independent of other factors.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the National Comorbidity Survey Part II (N = 5,877).
- Administered a psychosocial battery assessing neuroticism, extraversion, self-criticism, and interpersonal dependency.
- Conducted regression analyses, including hierarchical multivariate analysis controlling for sociodemographic and psychiatric variables.
Main Results:
- All assessed personality dimensions were significantly associated with lifetime major depression in initial analyses.
- In multivariate analyses, only self-criticism remained a significant predictor of major depression.
- The inclusion of self-criticism significantly improved the statistical model predicting major depression.
Conclusions:
- Self-criticism is robustly and independently associated with major depression in the general population.
- Other personality dimensions' associations with depression may be explained by shared variance with psychiatric history and emotional distress.