Neuroticism, other personality variables, and serum lipid levels in patients with anxiety disorders and normal controls

Objective: This study evaluates the association between certain personality variables, especially neuroticism, and serum lipid levels in patients suff ering from anxiety disorders as opposed to normal control individuals. It a ddresses the question whether in anxiety disorder patients neuroticism is a ssociated with elevated serum cholesterol and serum LDL cholesterol levels. Method: Thirty (15 male, 15 female) patients with anxiety disorders as def ined by DSM-IV and thirty normal matched controls were enrolled in this stu dy. The patients were either admitted for inpatient treatment or referred t o the behavioral therapy outpatient clinic at the Department of Psychiatry of the University Hospital Eppendorf (Hamburg/Germany). Control individuals were selected on a voluntary basis and recruited from the authors' colleag ues and peers. Matching included Body-Mass-Index, age, and gender. Results: This study showed a significant positive association of neuroticism and se rum cholesterol (r = .29) and serum LDL cholesterol (r = .35) within the en tire cohort of participants. An even higher significant positive relation ( r = .43) could be detected between neuroticism and serum LDL cholesterol wi thin the psychiatric patient group. As far as differences of personality va riables between patients and normal controls are concerned, patients seemed to be significantly less satisfied with life, more generally inhibited, mo re irritable, more stressed, and more emotionally labile than controls. Anx iety disorder patients also tended to complain significantly more often abo ut physical problems. Conclusions: Our data suggest that high scores of neu roticism in anxiety disorders patients may be involved in elevated serum LD L cholesterol levels and, thereby, may lead to an increased risk of coronar y heart disease.