Premorbid Personality Traits as Risk Factors for Behavioral Addictions: A Systematic Review of a Vulnerability Hypothesis

Abstract

The debate on personality structure and behavioral addictions is an outstanding issue. According to some authors, behavioral addictions could arise from a premorbid personality, while for others, it could result from a pathological use of technological tools. The current study aims to investigate whether, in the latest literature, personality traits have been identified as predictors of behavioral addictions. A literature search was conducted under the PRISMA methodology, considering the most relevant studies of the five-factor model from the past 10 years. Overall, most studies on addiction, personality traits, and personality genetics proved that behavioral addiction may be an epiphenomenon of a pre-existing personality structure, and that it more easily occurs in vulnerable subjects with emotional instability, negative affects, and unsatisfactory relationships with themselves, others, and events. Such neurotic personality structure was common to any addictive behavior, and was the main risk factor for both substance and behavioral addictions. Therefore, in clinical and educational contexts, it becomes crucial to primarily focus on the vulnerability factors, at-risk personality traits, and protective and moderating traits such as extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience; meanwhile, treatment of behavioral addictions is frequently focused on overt pathological behaviors.

Personality Traits and Fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis: A Narrative Review

“…Few studies have evaluated personality traits in people with early or early-diagnosed MS. Baseline personality traits are important to recognize early in the diagnosis of MS since they may have a negative impact on the progression of neurological symptoms [ 58 ]. Indeed, it is well-known that personality traits may play a pivotal role in the acceptance of the illness and in adaptive coping mechanisms [ 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 ] and several studies have considered traits to investigate patients’ responses to disease [ 63 , 64 , 65 ]. Personality traits reflect people’s characteristic patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself and they are relatively stable over time [ 66 , 67 ].…”