Jr. Influence on the normal personality dimension of neuroticism on chest pain symptoms and coronary artery disease. Presents a brief review of the clinical cardiologic literature on chest pain and describes the major dimensions of normal personality, especially the domain of neuroticism. Empirical evidence is reviewed on 1,191 adult men and women who 10 yrs earlier had made chest pain or discomfort reports part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Findings illustrate neuroticism's links to illness and disease.
When the mean initial neuroticism levels of the chest pain groups were compared, significantly higher initial levels of neuroticism were found for those who reported any pain or discomfort. As hypothesized, logistic regression results on myocardial infarction death indicated no increased risk due to neuroticism. Neuroticism was related to increased somatic complaints but was not causally or etiologically related to objective signs or pathophysiologic evidence of disease, especially coronary artery disease.