ReviewThe American psychologist
Public health significance of neuroticism.
Review in The American psychologist. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 625 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
625 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- How much is sexual minority stress confounded with familial causes? A systematic multilevel meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Neuroticism is Associated With Greater Affective Variability at High Levels of Momentary Affective Well-Being, but With Lower Affective Variability at Low Levels of Momentary Affective Well-Being.Journal of personality · 2025Pooled it
- Association between neuroticism and physical activity: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Personality predictors of dementia diagnosis and neuropathological burden: An individual participant data meta-analysis.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Pooled it
- Personality traits and mediating pathways to mortality risk: A systematic review.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2024Pooled it
- Developing a translational research framework for MDD: combining biomolecular mechanisms with a spiraling risk factor model.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Neuroticism facets and mortality risk in adulthood: A systematic review and narrative synthesis.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2023Pooled it
- Infant hippocampal and amygdala volume in an observational follow-up from a randomized clinical trial for maternal prenatal depression.Nature communications · 2026Trial
- Three-year patient-reported outcomes of the BOOG 2013-08 RCT evaluating omission of sentinel lymph node biopsy in early-stage breast cancer patients treated with breast conserving surgery: Impact of personality traits on health-related quality of life.The British journal of surgery · 2025Trial
- Eight weeks of high-intensity interval training versus stretching do not change the psychoneuroendocrine response to a social stress test in emotionally impulsive humans.European journal of applied physiology · 2024Trial
- LSD-assisted therapy in patients with anxiety: open-label prospective 12-month follow-up.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2024Trial
- Mental health trajectories after juridical divorce: Does personality matter?Journal of personality · 2023Trial
- The Mediating Role of Maladaptive Coping in the Association Between Neuroticism and Family Accommodation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.Psychiatry investigation · 2026Article
- Personality and Coming to Terms with Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study of Five-Factor Traits and Illness Acceptance in Oncology Outpatients.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Cyber behaviour and personality nexus: clustering around security attitudes, FoMO, problematic social media use, and cognitive and personality traits?Royal Society open science · 2026Article
- Genetic interconnections between personality-related phenotypes and psychiatric disorders.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Changes in emotional demands at work and subsequent risk of long-term sickness absence: a nationwide cohort study in Denmark.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- Emotional Stability and Emotional Eating in Medical Students: Exploring Indirect Associations Involving Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms.Nutrients · 2026Observational
- Associations between work-privacy conflict and parental relationship satisfaction two years after childbirth: unveiling the moderating role of personality.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Psychiatric Symptoms Associated with Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity: A Focused Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2026Review
565 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
The personality trait of neuroticism refers to relatively stable tendencies to respond with negative emotions to threat, frustration, or loss. Individuals in the population vary markedly on this trait, ranging from frequent and intense emotional reactions to minor challenges to little emotional reaction even in the face of significant difficulties. Although not widely appreciated, there is growing evidence that neuroticism is a psychological trait of profound public health significance. Neuroticism is a robust correlate and predictor of many different mental and physical disorders, comorbidity among them, and the frequency of mental and general health service use. Indeed, neuroticism apparently is a predictor of the quality and longevity of our lives. Achieving a full understanding of the nature and origins of neuroticism, and the mechanisms through which neuroticism is linked to mental and physical disorders, should be a top priority for research. Knowing why neuroticism predicts such a wide variety of seemingly diverse outcomes should lead to improved understanding of commonalities among those outcomes and improved strategies for preventing them.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.