Pn. Goebel et al., Neuroticism, other personality variables, and serum lipid levels in patients with anxiety disorders and normal controls, INT J PSY M, 28(4), 1998, pp. 449-462
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.