Citation

Steffens DC, Manning KJ, Wu R, Grady JJ, Fortinsky RH, Tennen HA. Int. Psychogeriatr. 2015; 27(12): 1987-1997.

Affiliation

Departments of Psychiatry (DCS, KJM) and Community Medicine and Healthcare (RW, JJG, HAT) the Center on Aging (RHF),University of Connecticut Health Center,263 Farmington Ave,Farmington,Connecticut,USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S1041610215001386

PMID

26323208

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We sought to investigate the relationship between neuroticism and depression in an elderly cohort. In this paper, we describe the methods of an National Institute of Mental Health-NIMH-supported study and present findings among the cohort enrolled to date.

METHODS: We used the NEO Personality Inventory to assess neuroticism, and we employed several cognitive neuroscience-based measures to examine emotional control.

RESULTS: Compared with a group of 27 non-depressed older control subjects, 33 older depressed subjects scored higher on measures of state and trait anxiety and neuroticism. On our experimental neuroscience-based measures, depressed subjects endorsed more negative words compared with controls on an emotional characterization test. In addition, we found a significant group-by-congruency effect on an emotional interference test where subjects were asked to identify the face's emotional expression while ignoring the words "fear" or "happy" labeled across the face.

CONCLUSION: Thus, in this preliminary work, we found significant differences in measures of neuroticism and emotional controls among older adults with and without depression.

Language: en