Pronunciation of irregular words is preserved in dementia, validating premorbid IQ estimation.

The National Adult Reading Test (NART), used to estimate premorbid mental ability, involves pronunciation of irregular words. The authors demonstrate that, after controlling for age 11 IQ test scores, mean NART scores do not differ in people with and without dementia. The correlation between age 11 IQ and NART scores at about age 80 was similar in the groups with (r = 0.63, p < 0.001) and without (r = 0.60, p < 0.001) dementia. These findings validate the NART as an estimator of premorbid ability in mild to moderate dementia.

Personality and social predictors of atherosclerotic progression: Edinburgh Artery Study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether personality traits and social factors predict the progression of peripheral atherosclerosis. Progression was assessed using the objective, noninvasive ankle brachial pressure index (ABPI). METHODS: In the Edinburgh Artery Study, 1592 men and women were randomly sampled from the general population, and their ABPI was measured at baseline and at the end of a 5-year follow-up period. A low ABPI suggests the presence of peripheral arterial disease. The revised Bedford-Foulds Personality Deviance Scale was administered at baseline to assess submissiveness and hostility. Data on other baseline risk factors, including physiological and social factors, were also collected. RESULTS: Change in ABPI over 5 years was negatively correlated with age in both men and women (men, r = -0.10; women, r = -0.25). In multiple linear regression models, smoking, alcohol consumption, and submissiveness together accounted for 2% of the variance in ABPI change in men; in women, only age was related to change, accounting for 6% of the variance. Well-fitting structural equation models in both sexes showed that age influenced baseline ABPI and change in ABPI; that smoking and social deprivation directly affected baseline ABPI; and that the effect of hostility, and some of the effect of social deprivation, was mediated by smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Social and personality factors were associated directly with baseline ABPI levels and indirectly with progression of atherosclerosis. Structural equation models revealed that associations among personality, social factors, and atherosclerotic progression were complex, involving mediation through other variables.

Neuroticism and polymorphisms in the serotonin transporter gene.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence for an association between two different polymorphisms of the human serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT) and the personality trait of neuroticism and affective disorder. METHODS: We studied the association between neuroticism and polymorphisms in the 5HTT-linked promoter region and in a variable number tandem repeat region (VNTR) of the 5-HTT gene in 204 people aged over 60 derived from a random sample of men and women in the general population. Approximately half of the subjects were in the top 20% of neuroticism scorers and half in the bottom 20%. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in allelic or genotypic frequencies between the high and low neuroticism scorers. There was highly significant linkage disequilibrium between the two 5-HTT gene polymorphisms, and haplotype analysis showed no association between neuroticism level and haplotype. CONCLUSIONS: Reports of an association between two 5-HTT gene polymorphisms and the personality trait of neuroticism are not supported by these results.

Submissiveness and protection from coronary heart disease in the general population: Edinburgh Artery Study.

BACKGROUND: Type A behaviour and, more specifically, hostility and anger have been associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). But less attention has been paid to other features of personality. Our aim was to assess whether a submissiveness trait, which is independent of hostility, was related to future risk of CHD in the general population. METHODS: The Edinburgh Artery Study is a cohort study of a random sample of 809 men and 783 women aged 55 to 74 years. At the baseline examination in 1988, we administered the Bedford-Foulds Personality Deviance Scales. The participants were followed up for 5 years for cardiovascular events. Criteria to define events were adapted from the American Heart Association. Events were ascertained from the information and Statistics Division of the Scottish Office Home and Health Department, general practitioners, the UK National Health Service Central Register, annual questionnaires to the participants, and the second examination at the end of follow-up. FINDINGS: During follow-up, 57 (7.0%) men and 28 (3.6%) women had non-fatal myocardial infarctions; 25 (3.1%) men and 8 (1.0%) women had fatal myocardial infarctions; and 48 (5.9%) men and 41 (5.2%) women developed angina pectoris. We found that mean submissiveness scores were significantly higher in men and women who did not have a non-fatal myocardial infarction than in those who did (18.88 [SE 0.15] vs 17.70 [0.40], p = 0.023 in men; 20.76 [0.17] vs 18.18 [0.86], p = 0.002 in women). In multiple logistic-regression models, submissiveness remained independently associated with risk of myocardial infarction in women only; a decreased risk of both non-fatal myocardial infarction (relative risk 0.59 [95% CI 0.40-0.85]) and, to a lesser extent, total myocardial infarction (0.69 [0.27-0.96]), was associated with an increase of 1 SD in submissiveness. INTERPRETATION: The personality trait of submissiveness may be protective against non-fatal myocardial infarction, particularly in women. A better understanding is required of the complicated effects of personality on CHD development.

Hostility, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption in the general population.

Hostility has been associated with coronary heart disease, and hostility may affect coronary risk through its influence on risk factors such as cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. The objective of this study was to determine relationships between hostile personality, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption in the general population. The Edinburgh Artery Study comprises a cross-sectional survey of 1592 men and women aged 55-74 years sampled from age-sex registers of 10 general practices throughout the city. The Bedford-Foulds Personality Deviance Questionnaire was used to elicit extrapunitiveness (including hostile thoughts), dominance (including hostile acts) and intropunitiveness. Social class, age and deprivation score were controlled for in multivariate analyses. The hostile thoughts scale emerged as a significant independent predictor of alcohol consumption in men and women (P < or = 0.01), and the models accounted for 4-9% of the variance in alcohol consumption. Hostile acts were independently predictive of smoking in men (P < or = 0.001), with the model accounting for 5% of the variance in smoking. Hostile thoughts were independently predictive of smoking in women (P < or = 0.001), and the model accounted for 4% of the variance in their smoking. We conclude that hostility may affect coronary risk through its influence on lifestyle-related coronary risk factors, although in future further elucidation of hostility type and standard measurement of hostility are necessary.