The importance of personality and life-events in anxious depression: from trait to state anxiety

Objectives: Anxious depression is associated with severe impairment and bad prognoses. We hypothesize that recent life-events are associated with more anxiety in late-life depression and that this is conditional upon the level of certain personality traits. Method: Baseline data of the Netherlands S...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Aging & mental health 2017-11, Vol.21 (11), p.1177-1183
Main Authors: van der Veen, Date C., van Dijk, Silvia D. M., Comijs, Hannie C., van Zelst, Willeke H., Schoevers, Robert A., Oude Voshaar, Richard C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging - physiology
Anxiety - epidemiology
Anxiety - physiopathology
Anxious depression
Comorbidity
Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression - epidemiology
Depression - physiopathology
Depressive Disorder - epidemiology
Depressive Disorder - physiopathology
Female
Health Surveys
Humans
Life Change Events
life-events
Male
Middle Aged
Netherlands - epidemiology
personality
Personality - physiology
Severity of Illness Index
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Summary:Objectives: Anxious depression is associated with severe impairment and bad prognoses. We hypothesize that recent life-events are associated with more anxiety in late-life depression and that this is conditional upon the level of certain personality traits. Method: Baseline data of the Netherlands Study of Depression in Older Persons (NESDO) were used. In 333 patients (≥60 years) suffering from a major depressive disorder, anxiety was assessed with the BAI, personality traits with the NEO-FFI and the Mastery Scale, and life-events with the Brugha questionnaire. Multiple linear regression analyses were applied with anxiety severity as dependent and life-events and personality traits as independent variables. Results: 147 patients (44.1%) had recently experienced one or more life-events. The presence of a life-event is not associated with anxiety (p = .161) or depression severity (p = .440). However, certain personality traits interacted with life-events in explaining anxiety severity. Stratified analyses showed that life-events were associated with higher anxiety levels in case of high levels of neuroticism and openness and low levels of conscientiousness or mastery. Conclusions: In the face of a life-event, personality traits may play a central role in increased anxiety levels in late-life depression.
ISSN:1360-7863
1364-6915
DOI:10.1080/13607863.2016.1202894