Cross-cultural traits for personality of patients with Parkinson's disease in Japan.
Recent studies suggest that Parkinson's disease (PD)
is associated with particular personality traits.
Using Cloningers's Tridimensional Personality
Questionnaire (TPQ), Menza and colleagues [1993:
Neurology 43:505-508] reported a possible association
between PD and a reduced score in the novelty seeking
(NS) dimension of the TPQ. We sought to determine
whether this association, which was found in a study
conducted in the United States, could also be found
among Japanese PD patients. We performed personality
assessments of 67 Japanese PD patients, using the TPQ
test. The results suggest that Japanese PD patients
have significantly lower scores in the NS dimension
of the TPQ, as well as significantly higher harm
avoidance (HA) scores, compared with matched control
subjects. Furthermore, the PD patients undergoing
treatment for depression using antidepressant drugs
scored significantly higher in the HA dimension than
PD patients who did not receive antidepressant drug
treatment. Our results suggest that the high HA
score, and the low NS score in the TPQ test observed
in patients with PD, is a cross-cultural phenomenon,
although the influence of depression, long-term
treatment, and premorbid gene/environmental
interactions may also affect these personality
traits. Copyright 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Am J Med Genet 2000 Feb;96(1):1-3
Fujii C, Harada S, Ohkoshi N, Hayashi A, Yoshizawa K
Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
PMID: 10686542
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10686542&dopt=Abstract>
janet paterson
52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
a new voice: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/
613 256 8340 PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario Canada K0A 1A0
