Neuroticism and extraversion as predictors of health outcomes in depressed primary care patients

Depressed primary care patients (N = 217) were assessed to determine if certain personality characteristics predict health domains independent of chronic disease, demographics, depression, and psychiatric diagnoses. Eleven health variables were used to create three outcome factor scores: disability (e.g., days missed work); somatization (e.g., medically unexplained symptoms); and subjective pain (severity, interference). Neuroticism explained significant variance in all health outcomes independent of the other predictors. Depression and neuroticism interacted in the disability and pain models. Depression was related to health in neurotic patients, while in the absence of neuroticism, little relation between depression and health was observed. Neuroticism may explain why persons with similar health problems have differing levels of disability, pain, and somatization.