Women with Neurotic Personalities are Likely to Develop Alzheimer’s Disease: Study

Middle-aged women who are vulnerable to stress and worry too much are likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, warns a study.

Hypochondriacs and chronic thinkers are emotionally and mentally sensitive. They often anticipate the negatives and unfavorable situations. Studies have confirmed such attitude gives rise to health problems and clinical depression. A new research by the University of Gothenburg found women who are less capable of coping up under stressful situations or handle mood fluctuations are at risk of suffering neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease in later years. The experts conducted personality tests on 800 women to measure their level of neuroticism and extroversion. The subjects also undertook memory tests at regular intervals, reports the ANI News.

Forty years later, women who were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease were identified to have neurotic tendencies in their middle-age indicating prolonged episodes of stress can harm the human brain. In addition, it was observed women who were shy had a high propensity to react to stress and unmanageable mood swings. These women had chances of suffering memory loss and developing conditions like dementia and Alzheimer's.

"We know that many factors influence the risk of developing dementia. Our personality may determine behavior, lifestyle and how we react to stress, and in this way affect the risk of developing Alzheimer disease," says Lena Johansson, scientist at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, in a news release.

"Some studies have shown that long periods of stress can increase the risk of Alzheimer disease, and our main hypothesis is that it is the stress itself that is harmful. A person with neurotic tendencies is more sensitive to stress than other people," adds Johansson.

More information is available online in the journal Neurology.