The impact of personality characteristics on the clinical expression in neurodegenerative disorders—A review

• Published in: Brain research bulletin 2009-10, Vol.80 (4), p.179-191
• Main Authors: von Gunten, Armin, Pocnet, Cornelia, Rossier, Jérôme
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Affective Symptoms - psychology; Alzheimer; Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia; Brain - pathology; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Cognition Disorders - psychology; Cognitive disorders; Delusions - psychology; Hallucinations - psychology; Humans; Neurodegeneration; Neurodegenerative Diseases - diagnosis; Neurodegenerative Diseases - psychology; Neurology; Personality
• ISSN: 0361-9230; 1873-2747
• DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2009.07.004

Abstract Clinical experience suggests that longstanding personality characteristics as a person's most distinctive features of all are likely to play a role in how someone with dementia copes with his increasing deficiencies. Personality characteristics may have a pathoplastic effect on both behavioral and psychological symptoms (BPS) or on cognition as well as cognitive decline. Cognitive disorders accompanied by BPS are a tremendous burden for both the patient and their proxies. This review suggests that premorbid personality characteristics are co-determinants of BPS in cognitive disorders, but much effort is needed to clarify whether or not specific premorbid personality traits are associated with specific BPS as no strong links have so far emerged. This review further shows that a growing field of research is interested in the links not only between quite short-lived emotional states and cognitive processes, but also between longstanding personality traits and cognition in both healthy individuals and patients with neurodegenerative disorders. Furthermore, a few studies found that specific premorbid personality traits may be risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases. However, research findings in this area remain scarce despite a huge literature on personality and cognitive disorders in general. An important shortcoming that hampers so far the progress of our understanding in these domains is the confusion in the literature between longstanding premorbid personality traits and transient personality changes observed in neurodegenerative diseases. Few studies have based their assessments on accepted personality theories and carefully investigated premorbid personality traits in patients with cognitive disorders, although assessing personality may be complicated in these patients. Studying the impact of personality characteristics in cognitive disorders is an especially promising field of research in particular when concomitantly using neurobiological approaches, in particular structural brain imaging and genetic studies as suggested by as yet rare studies. Improved understanding of premorbid personality characteristics as determinants of both BPS or cognitive capacities or decline is likely to influence our attitudes towards the treatment of demented patients and ultimately to help in alleviating a patient's and their proxies’ burden.