Background Certain personality traits may mediate the relationship between familiality and adversity in causing depression. Aims To examine whether the neuroticism and extraversion scales of the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) represent enduring traits underlying the vulnerability to respond to adversity by developing depressive episodes. Method A total of 108 subjects with depression and their siblings were compared with 105 healthy control subjects and their siblings. All were interviewed using the Schedules for the Clinical Assessment of Neuropsychiatry and the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule. Subjects also completed the EPI. Results Both neuroticism and extraversion were familial and correlated with mood and life event measures. There were no differences on either measure between the never-depressed siblings of probands with depression and controls. Regression analyses showed that the major influence on neuroticism was current mood. Conclusions Neither extraversion nor neuroticism measures trait vulnerability to depression, and neuroticism scores mainly reflect symptoms of depression.
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