Psychiatry Research
Volume 169, Issue 2 , Pages 159-163, 30 September 2009

Personality trait predictors of bipolar disorder symptoms

  • Lena Catherine Quilty

      Affiliations

    • Clinical Research Department, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
    • Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
    • ,
  • Martin Sellbom

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA
    • ,
  • Jennifer Lee Tackett

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
    • ,
  • Robert Michael Bagby

      Affiliations

    • Clinical Research Department, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
    • Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 250 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5T 1R8. Tel.: +1 416 535 8501x6939; fax: +1 416 260 4125.

Received 29 February 2008; received in revised form 3 July 2008; accepted 12 July 2008.

Abstract 

The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the personality predictors of bipolar disorder symptoms, conceptualized as one-dimensional (bipolarity) or two-dimensional (mania and depression). A psychiatric sample (N=370; 45% women; mean age 39.50 years) completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory —2. A model in which bipolar symptoms were represented as a single dimension provided a good fit to the data. This dimension was predicted by Neuroticism and (negative) Agreeableness. A model in which bipolar symptoms were represented as two separate dimensions of mania and depression also provided a good fit to the data. Depression was associated with Neuroticism and (negative) Extraversion, whereas mania was associated with Neuroticism, Extraversion and (negative) Agreeableness. Symptoms of bipolar disorder can be usefully understood in terms of two dimensions of mania and depression, which have distinct personality correlates.

Keywords: Depression, Mania, Personality, Trait, Five Factor Model, MMPI-2

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PII: S0165-1781(08)00224-2

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2008.07.004

Psychiatry Research
Volume 169, Issue 2 , Pages 159-163, 30 September 2009

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