PREMORBID PERSONALITY-TRAITS OF PATIENTS WITH ORGANIC (ICD-10 F0), SCHIZOPHRENIC (F2), MOOD (F3), AND NEUROTIC (F4) DISORDERS ACCORDING TO THE 5-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY

The present article aims to examine premorbid personality traits of ps ychiatric patients with various diagnoses by asking their close relati ves to retrospectively rate the patients' usual self with a questionna ire designed for the five-factor model of personality, a rapidly emerg ing comprehensive theory of personality structure. Data for 140 patien ts and 84 controls were analyzed. Although psychiatric patients as a g roup were characterized by high neuroticism and low conscientiousness when compared with the healthy controls, there were only a few traits that distinguished a particular diagnostic group from either the norma l control or from the rest of the patients: neurotic disorder patients had higher neuroticism scores than the normal controls; unipolar depr essives had a higher conscientiousness score than the rest of the pati ent group. No salient premorbid trait was noted for patients with orga nic mental disorders, schizophrenic disorders or bipolar disorders. (C ) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.