Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The personality associated with Parkinson’s disease

  • Published:
Current Psychiatry Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Since at least 1913 reports have suggested there are personality traits and behaviors that are found premorbidly in those who go on to develop Parkinson’s disease (PD). This premorbid personality consists of traits such as industriousness, punctuality, inflexibility, cautiousness, and lack of novelty seeking and persists after the onset of the motor illness. The existence of this personality remains controversial but is supported by case-based anecdotes, twin studies, and comparison of patients with PD with medical control patients on standardized instruments. In addition a large number of epidemiologic studies show that people who develop PD have low lifetime risks for cigarette smoking, coffee drinking, and alcohol consumption, again suggesting that there is a behavior pattern that predates PD. Despite the retrospective nature of much of these data, the use of nonstandardized instruments, and diffuse concepts of personality, the great majority of studies show striking similarity in identifying these traits. An integrating hypothesis, involving damage to dopaminergic systems, known to predate the onset of the motor illness, is discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References and Recommended Reading

  1. Camp CD: Paralysis agitans, multiple sclerosis and their treatment. In Modern Treatment of Nervous and Mental Disease, by American and British Authors. Edited by White WA, Jelliffe SE, Kimpton H. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger; 1913:651–667.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Bernheimer H. Birkmayer W, Hornykiewicz O, et al.: Brain dopamine and the syndromes of Parkinson and Huntington: clinical morphological and biochemical correlations. J Neurol Sci 1973, 20:415–455.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Jelliffe SE: The Parkinsonian body posture: some considerations on unconscious hostility. Psychoanalyst Rev 1940, 27:467–479.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Sands IJ: The type of personality susceptible to Parkinson’s disease. J Mt Sinai Hosp 1942, 9:792–794.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Booth G: Psychodynamics in Parkinsonism. Psychosom Med 1948, 10:1–14.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Prichard JS, Schwab RS, Tillann WA: The effects of stress and the results of medication in different personalities with Parkinson’s disease. Psychosom Med 1951, 13:106–111.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Machover S: Rorschach study on the nature and origin of common factors in personalities of parkinsonians. Psychosom Med 1957, 19:332–338.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Riklan M, Weiner H, Diller L: Somato-psychologic studies in Parkinson’s disease. 1. An investigation into the relationship of certain disease factors to psychological functions. J Nerv Ment Dis 1959, 129:263–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Riklan M, Levita E: Subcortical Correlates of Human Behavior. A Psychologic Study of Thalamic and Basal Ganglia Surgery. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins; 1969:226–231.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Mitscherllich M: The psychic state of patients suffering from Parkinsonism. Adv Psychosom Med 1960, 1:317–324.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Prick JJG: Genuine parkinsonism. A psychosomatic, anthropological-psychiatric approach. Abs World Congress of Psychiatry Madrid, 1966. Sandorama Special Number IV, 1966.

  12. Lit AC: Man behind a mask. An analysis of the psychomotor phenomena of Parkinson’s disease. Acta Nerol Belg 1968, 68:863–874.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Ogawa T: Personality characteristics of Parkinson’s disease. Percept Mot Skills 1981, 52:375–378.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Poewe W, Gerstenbrand F, Ransmayr G, Plorer: Premorbid personality of Parkinson patients. J Neuroal Transmission Suppl 1983, 19:215–224.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Ward CD, Duvoisin RC, Ince SE, et al.: Parkinson’s disease in twins. In Advances in Neurology, vol 40. Edited by RG Hassler, Christ F. New York: Raven Press; 1984:341–344.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Heberlein I, Ludin H, Scholz J, Vieregge P: Personality, depression, and premorbid lifestyle in twin pairs discordant for Parkinson’s disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1998, 64:262–266.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Vieregge P, Hagenah J, Heberlein I, et al.: Parkinson’s disease in twins. A follow-up study. Neurology 1999, 53:566–572.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Smythies JR: The previous personality in Parkinsonism. J Psychosom Res 1967, 11:169–171.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Eatough VM, Kempster PA, Stern GM, et al.: Premorbid personality and idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. In Advances in Neurology, vol 53. New York: Raven Press; 1990:335–337.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Poewe W, Karamat E, Kemmler GW, Gerstenbrand F: The premorbid personality of patients with Parkinson’s disease: a comparative study with healthy controls and patients with essential tremor. In Advances in Neurology, vol 53. Edited by Streifler MB, Korczyn AD, Melamed E, Youdim MBH, New York: Raven Press; 1990:339–342.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Jinenez-Jinenez FJ, Santos J, Zancada F, et al.: Premorbid personality of patients with Parkinson’s disease. Acta Neurol (Napoli) 1992, 14:208–214.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Hubble JP, Benkatesch R, Hassanein RES, et al.: Personality and depression in Parkinson’s disease. J Nerv Ment Dis 1993, 181:657–662.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Glosser G, Clark C, Freundlich B, et al.: A controlled investigation of current and premorbid personality: characteristics of Parkinson’s disease patients. Mov Disord 1995, 10:2:201–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Hornykiewicz O, Kish SJ: Biochemical pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease. Adv Neurol 1986, 45:19–34.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Agid Y, Cervera P, Hirsch E, et al.: Biochemistry of Parkinson’s disease 28 years later: a critical review. Mov Disord 1989, 4(suppl 1):S126-S124.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. The Neuropharmacological Basis of Reward. Edited by Liebman JM, Cooper SJ. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1989.

  27. Iversen SD: Brain dopamine systems and behavior. In Handbook of Psychopharmacology, vol 8. Edited by Iversen LL, Iversen SD, Snyder SH. New York: Plenum Publishing; 1977:333–374.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Bardo MT, Donohew RL, Harrington NG: Psychobiology of novelty seeking and drug seeking behavior. Behav Brain Res 1996, 77:23–43.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Cloninger RC: A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1987, 44:573–588.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Menza MA, Forman NE, Goldstein HS, Golbe LI: Parkinson’s disease, personality and dopamine. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1990, 2:282–287.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Fibiger HC: The neurobiological substrates of depression in Parkinson’s disease: a hypothesis. Can J Neurol Sci 1984, 11(suppl 1):105–107.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Taylor AD, Saint-Cyr JA: The neuropsychology of Parkinson’s disease. Brain Cogn 1995, 28:281–296.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Menza MA, Golbe LI, Cody RA, Forman NE: Dopamine-related personality traits in Parkinson’s disease. Neurology 1993, 43:505–508.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Menza MA, Mark M, Burn D, Brooks D: Psychiatric correlates of 18F-dopa striatal uptake: positron emission tomography results in Parkinson’s disease. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosciences 1995, 7:176–179.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Kahn HA: The Dorn study of smoking and mortality among U.S. veterans: report on eight and one-half years of observation. In Epidemiologic Approaches to the Study of Cancer and Other Chronic Disease. National Cancer Institute Monograph No. 19. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1966:1–125.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Hammond CA: Smoking in relation to the death rates of one million men and women. In Epidemiologic Approaches to the Study of Cancer and Other Chronic Disease. National Cancer Institute Monograph No. 19. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office 1966:127–204.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Kessler II, Diamond EL: Epidemiologic studies of Parkinson’s disease: I. Smoking and Parkinson’s disease: a survey and explanatory hypothesis. Am J Epidemiol 1971, 94:16–25.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Marttila RJ, Rinne UK: Smoking and Parkinson’s disease. Acta Neurol Scand 1980, 62:322–325.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Baumann RJ, Jameson HD, McKean HE, et al.: Cigarette smoking and Parkinson’s disease: I. A comparison of cases with matched neighbors. Neurology 1980, 30:839–843.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Godwin-Austen RB, Lee PN, Marmot MG, et al.: Smoking and Parkinson’s disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1982, 45:577–581.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Jimenez-Jimenez FJ, Mateo D, Ginenez-Rolday S: Premorbid smoking, alcohol consumption, and coffee drinking habits in Parkinson’s disease. A case-control study. Mov Disord 1992, 4:4:339–344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Gorell JM, Rybicki BA, Johnson CC, Peterson EL: Smoking and Parkinson’s disease: a dose-response relationship. Neurology 1999, 52:115–119. A good review of the evidence indicating that patients who develop PD have a reduced lifetime risk of having been smokers.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Ross WG, Abbott RD, Petrovitch H, et al.: Association of coffee and caffeine intake with the risk of Parkinson disease. JAMA 2000, 283:2674–2679. A large prospective study of caffeine intake and the risk for PD. Patients who are non-coffee drinkers have five times the risk of developing PD as do heavy coffee drinkers.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Nehlig A, Boyet S: Dose-response study of caffeine effects on cerebral functional activity with a specific focus on dependence. Brain Res 2000, 858:71–77.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Wise RA: Neurobiology of addiction. Curr Opin Neurobiol 1996, 6:243–251.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Rowell PP, Carr LA, Garner AC: Stimulation of [3H]dopamine release by nicotine in rat nucleus accumbens. J Neurochem 1987, 49:1449–1454.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Henningfield JE, Goldberg SR: Nicotine as a reinforcer in human subjects and laboratory animals. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 1983, 19:989–992.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Zuckerman M, Ball S, Black J: Influences of sensation seeking, gender, risk appraisal and situational motivation on smoking. Addict Behav 1990, 15:209–220.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Menza MA, Forman NE, Sage JI: Parkinson’s Disease and smoking: the relationship to personality. Neuropsychiatry Neuropsychol Behav Neurol 1993, 6:214–218.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Cummings JL: Depression and Parkinson’s disease: a review. Am J Psych 1992, 149:443–454.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  51. Stenager EN, Wermuth L, Stenager E, Boldsen J: Suicide in patients with Parkinson’s disease. an epidemiological study. Acta Psychiatr Scand 1994, 90:70–72.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Paulson GW, Dadmehr N: Is there a premorbid personality typical for Parkinson’s disease? Neurology 1991, 41(suppl 2):73–76.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane, UBHC, Room D207A, 08854, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Matthew Menza MD

Authors
  1. Matthew Menza MD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Menza, M. The personality associated with Parkinson’s disease. Curr Psychiatry Rep 2, 421–426 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-000-0027-1

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-000-0027-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation