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Alterations of the sense of self and personality in Parkinson's disease
Author(s) -
McNamara Patrick,
Durso Raymon,
Harris Erica
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.1845
Subject(s) - psychology , personality , harm avoidance , novelty seeking , cognition , mood , clinical psychology , personality disorders , parkinson's disease , personality pathology , developmental psychology , recall , executive functions , executive dysfunction , psychiatry , disease , big five personality traits , neuropsychology , medicine , cognitive psychology , social psychology
Purpose We hypothesized that alterations of subcomponents (‘harm‐avoidance’) of personality and the sense of Self in patients with PD would be associated with executive cognitive dysfunction. Methods Thirty‐four patients with PD and 17 age‐matched controls with chronic disease were assessed with a set of neuropsychologic, personality and mood tests as well as an experimental assessment of the sense of Self. Results On personality and self tests, PD patients evidenced higher harm avoidance, lower novelty seeking scores, and lower recall rates of personally experienced events from childhood than controls and this PD personality profile was associated with poor performance on neuropsychologic tests of executive prefrontal function. PD patients, however, did not differ significantly from controls in their subjectively felt congruence between their present Selves and their hoped‐for Selves. Conclusions We suggest that harm‐avoidance personality and Self‐related changes of PD are due, in part, to a memory disorder associated with frontal dysfunction. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.