What is it about?
Personality traits are used to measure individual differences in behavioral tendencies. Different traits tend to be correlated with each other and with risk of psychiatric disorders. Psychiatric disorders are highly comorbid and it has been argued that this is because they reflect a shared dimension of underlying risk factors. This study provides evidence consistent with such a shared dimension of risk factor and shows that the same risk factors can usefully explain correlations between personality traits as well as correlations between the traits and psychiatric disorders. The study samples an unprecedented breadth of personality and disorder indicators.
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Why is it important?
There is a growing pressure to re-organize psychiatric diagnostic systems. Whereas classic incremental progress involves merging or differentiating single disorders and etiologic theories, the present work suggests a need for a more holistic change where the disorders are understood as being less differentiated from each other than before and more integrated with certain personality processes.
Perspectives
Understanding on psychiatric comorbidity is growing rapidly. For ages, individual practitioners have noted commonalities across different psychiatric disorders, but modern large-scale data allows viewing the comorbidity landscape from a higher vantage point. This study, the studies it cites, and those that follow may set in motion massive changes in how mental disorders are understood, diagnosed, and treated. Time will tell.
Tom Rosenström
Klassillis-filologinen yhdistys ry
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Joint factorial structure of psychopathology and personality, Psychological Medicine, November 2018, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0033291718002982.
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