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Survey study, 2022

Does personality type affect how severe PMDD is?

Yes. Women with higher neuroticism (a personality trait involving worry, emotional reactivity, and anxiety) had more severe PMDD symptoms and greater impact on daily life.

Moderate study design 96 women with newly diagnosed PMDD (selected from an initial screening of 148).

What they did

Researchers studied 96 women newly diagnosed with PMDD. They measured symptom severity using two standardized questionnaires and assessed personality traits using a personality inventory. They analyzed whether personality traits predicted PMDD symptom severity and daily impact.

What they found

Higher neuroticism was significantly associated with worse scores on both the symptom severity questionnaire and the daily life impact questionnaire. Neuroticism emerged as the strongest personality trait predicting worse PMDD outcomes.

What it means for you

A neurotic personality type may predict worse PMDD severity and could help identify women needing extra support. The study was cross-sectional, so it shows association only, not that personality causes worse PMDD.

96

Women with PMDD studied

148

Initial screening cohort

About the study

Original title
Effects of Personality Traits on Clinical Outcomes of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
Authors
Erson Aksu, Elmas Beyazyüz
Journal
Neuropsychiatric Investigation
Year
2022
Study design
Survey study
Participants
148
What was tested
None. This was an observational study measuring personality and symptom associations.
Open access
Yes

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