Personality and Disease: New Directions in Modern Research

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Background

The existing tight link connecting personality and health issues has always elicited a great interest, it is only in recent years that this particular association has received greater attention leading to a systematical examination approach, adopting thorough empirical investigations.
The past few decades have witnessed an increasing amount of research documenting a robust and clinically meaningful association of personality features and personality disorders (PDs) with several physical illnesses.
PDs affect 4.4% to 14.8% of the population, they predict future health problems and they are associated with high treatment utilization and reduced life expectancies.
Health diseases as asthma, allergies, rheumatism/arthritis, headache, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal problems seem to appear more likely in people affected by PDs compared to healthy subjects. Moreover, personality features and syndromes have been suggested to be able to impact on the development, progression, or outcome of health problems in a significant fashion.

Currently, this field of research and theory have advanced.
Certain meta-analyses showed the relevant impact of specific five-factor model of personality (FFM) dimensions or personality traits (such as the hostility trait) on the onset and course of coronary artery pathology. Some authors suggested that “Type A” personalities have a greater risk of developing heart disease. Other studies found higher rates of recurrent headaches in individuals presenting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) Cluster C PDs. Likewise, some research results reported more chronic pain conditions (e.g. fibromyalgia, visceral pain) among patients who screened positive for borderline PD.

Although it appears clear that particular personality characteristics and PDs co-occur with health diseases, we know very little about these associations and their underlying mechanisms.
We need to deepen our understanding of how individual psychological features may affect various clinical conditions, often exacerbating certain illnesses and generating worse health outcomes.
In order to promote an increase and broadening of our current knowledge concerning these issues, accurate diagnoses in different clinical settings and contexts are needed, as well as an effective informative program and personalized intervention programs.

To fulfil this purpose, this Research Topic welcomes studies which:

• Examine the role of personality characteristics or PDs on disease onset, progression and outcome.
• Analyze the prevalence of personality characteristics and PDs in a clinical setting and population-based studies.
• Present findings on factors or mechanisms during childhood or adolescence which might be a precursor of PDs and health problems in adulthood.
• Present systematic reviews or meta-analyses on specific personality features or PDs and health outcomes
• Present case-control research findings comparing clinical populations with specific psychical diseases on personality features or PDs
• Examine the role of specific personality dimensions (e.g., emotion dysregulation) in developing or exacerbating distinct health problems.
• Explore biological, psychological, and environmental factors that may contribute to health diseases among people with specific PDs.
• Explore the efficacy of diverse psychological interventions in the context of personality features or PDs and health outcomes.
• Compare different models of personality and PDs in the context of disorders and disease.

To this end, we welcome Original Research articles, Review articles, Hypothesis and Theory articles, Perspective articles, Brief Research Report articles, Commentaries, and Opinion articles to bring together clinicians and researchers from different clinical settings and pertaining to different models of personality and psychopathology (DSM, FFM, PDM-2, HiTOP etc.).

Keywords: Personality, disease, assessment, pain, psychopathology

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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