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Personality Traits Linked to Dementia
Date Updated: January 3, 2025
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Sarah has produced thousands of articles in diverse niches over her decade-long career as a full-time freelance writer. This includes substantial content in the fields of senior care and health care. She has experience writing about wide-ranging topics, such as types of care, care costs, funding options, state Medicaid programs and senior resources.
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Dr. Brindusa Vanta is a health care professional, researcher, and an experienced medical writer (2000+ articles published online and several medical ebooks). She received her MD degree from “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine, Romania, and her HD diploma from OCHM – Toronto, Canada.
Personality traits linked to dementia can indicate a heightened risk of developing progressive cognitive decline. Conversely, studies have identified characteristics that may lessen the likelihood of developing dementia. Nonetheless, personality alone doesn’t cause Alzheimer’s disease or other cognitive conditions.
What is Dementia?
Dementia is an umbrella term for common symptoms associated with cognitive decline caused by changes in the brain. Such conditions include:
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Lewy body dementias
- Vascular dementia
- Frontotemporal dementia
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
- Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome
- Parkinson’s disease dementia
- Huntington’s disease
- Normal pressure hydrocephalus
Individuals may have several concurrent conditions, leading to a mixed dementia diagnosis. Although symptoms of dementia vary for each individual, worsening as conditions progress, they include cognitive and psychological symptoms such as:
- Memory loss
- Confusion
- Difficulty completing everyday tasks
- Mood changes
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Repetitive speech and actions
- Language and communication problems
- Inappropriate behaviors
- Aggression
- Hallucinations
- Paranoia
- Social withdrawal
- Poor judgment
Personalities With an Increased Risk of Dementia
Research suggests that people with higher levels of neuroticism and lower conscientiousness have a greater risk of developing certain dementias, although the reasons remain unclear. Individuals with neurotic tendencies often experience heightened levels of negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, irritability and emotional instability. Low conscientiousness, marked by traits such as poor self-control, lack of responsibility and disorganization, has also been linked to higher dementia risk.
Personalities With a Decreased Risk of Dementia
In contrast, Scientists believe some characteristics may reduce dementia risk, including high conscientiousness, a positive outlook and an outgoing nature. Additionally, people with a lower likelihood of experiencing cognitive decline are often creative, inquisitive and friendly.
Moreover, despite these studies, the lack of connections between personality traits and physical changes in the brain or nervous system suggests that individuals may be able to manage or delay dementia symptoms.