A person’s personality can influence a whole range of factors in their life, from their education and finances, to their relationships and social life, and, crucially, their mental and physical health. This also includes their ocular health.
To examine how personality might specifically influence dry eye disease (DED) and its associated symptoms, a multinational team of researchers have looked at three of the Big Five personality domains – neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness) – as taken from trait theory, the psychological approach to the study of human personality.
Morten S. Magnø, study co-author and an ophthalmology researcher focused on DED at Oslo University Hospital and Sørlandet Hospital in Norway, explains, “The study expanded on a preliminary investigation into the topic of personality and eye disorders presented at ARVO 2019 by Vehof and Hammond, which found that people with dry eye disease scored particularly high on many aspects of neuroticism.”
To identify patients with DED, the researchers used the Women's Health Study (WHS) dry eye disease questionnaire, which included both self-reporting of DED diagnosis and assessment of current symptom burden of dry eye.
The reliance on self-reported DED diagnosis could introduce some reporting bias, admits Magnø. But “it likely does not detract from the generalizability between personality traits and DED symptoms.”
The study found that higher neuroticism (defined by Psychology Today as a “tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other negative feelings”) and lower conscientiousness (defined as the “tendency to be responsible, organized, hard-working, goal-directed, and adhere to norms and rules”) were both associated with increased odds of DED.
Both personality traits, the authors note, may contribute towards increased subjective symptoms, meaning that they should be considered as important factors when it comes to clinical care and management of DED.
“A better understanding of the relationship between personality traits, especially neuroticism, and dry eye symptoms and pain sensitivity may be useful in DED treatment in several ways,” says Magnø. “Among other things, the discrepancy between signs and symptoms seen in some patients could in part be caused by personal factors not yet fully mapped… A greater understanding of the factors influencing this, including neuroticism, may help better tailor DED treatment and help physicians and patients better understand the disease.”
