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This Question Quickly Predicts A Person’s Risk Of Serious Mental Illness
The question predicts depression, anxiety and substance abuse risk.
The question predicts depression, anxiety and substance abuse risk.
Questions about a person’s family history of mental illness are one of the quickest ways of predicting their risk of mental illness.
A 30-minute questionnaire about family history of depression, anxiety and substance abuse can predict approximate risk and severity for people, research finds.
Mental illnesses are among the most heritable disorders, so the result comes as no surprise.
However, the fact that the severity of people’s mental illness could be predicted is more novel.
Professor Terrie Moffitt, the study’s first author, said:
“There are lots of kids with behavior problems who may outgrow them on their own without medication, versus the minority with mental illnesses that need treatment.
Family history is the quickest and cheapest way to sort that out.”
The study examined 981 New Zealanders born in a single hospital in 1972 and 1973.
In what is known as the ‘Dunedin study’, these children have been tracked since they were 3-years-old.
The researchers found that more severe family histories of depression, anxiety, and substance dependence predicted worse mental health problems in the future.
The more severe the family history, the more severe the children’s problems.
Because of the stigma attached to mental health problems, it can be difficult to get someone’s family history.
The study’s authors suggest a more indirect line of questioning:
“Has anyone on the list of family members ever had a sudden spell or attack in which they felt panicked?” If the interviewee came up with a name, they were then asked, “Did this person have several attacks of extreme fear or panic, even though there was nothing to be afraid of?”
The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine (Moffitt et al., 2007).
The Personality Trait Linked To Good Mental Health
Personality, though, changes how people interpret and deal with the things that happen to them.
Personality, though, changes how people interpret and deal with the things that happen to them.
People who are extraverted are less likely to suffer mental health problems, personality research finds.
Extraverts are typically outgoing, talkative and energetic and they tend to have more positive emotions.
However, people who are aggressive and neurotic — a tendency to worry and be emotionally unstable — are at higher risk of mental health problems.
Neuroticism is characterised by negative thinking in a range of areas.
Neurotic people are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, as well as drink and drug problems.
Neuroticism, like other aspects of personality, is highly heritable — in other words, it is in a person’s genes.
However, neuroticism can be reduced by psychotherapy.
Neurotic people can learn to think differently, use their neuroticism creatively and perhaps reduce their neuroticism by falling in love.
The conclusions come from almost 600 participants in Switzerland.
They were regularly interviewed from the age of around 19 in 1979, until they were in their fifties in 2008.
The researchers asked them about their families, mental health, personality, any problems with drugs and major life events like relationship break-ups, job losses and so on.
People who are aggressive, neurotic and introverted are particularly at risk, the study’s authors write:
“…persons scoring high on aggressiveness and neuroticism and low on extraversion had an approximately 6 times increased risk for internalising disorder [like depression and anxiety] compared to persons scoring low on aggressiveness and neuroticism and high on extraversion.”
Of course, personality is only one factor that affects whether a person might experience a mental health problem.
Some people’s lives are much more difficult than others.
The researchers found that people who experienced job losses and relationship break-ups were more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety.
Personality, though, changes how people interpret and deal with the things that happen to them.
The study’s authors conclude:
“Our findings stress the fundamental role of personality, mainly neuroticism, for the occurrence, persistence and severity of psychopathology.”
The study was published in the journal European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience (Hengartner et al., 2017).
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