Examination of the trait facets of the five-factor model in discriminating specific mood and anxiety disorders.

Structural models of the mood and anxiety disorders postulate that each disorder has a shared component that can account for comorbidity and its own unique component that distinguishes it from others. The principal aim of the current study was to determine the extent to which the 30 facets of the Five-Factor Model (FFM), as measured by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R), contribute to the identification of the unique component in mood and anxiety disorders in treatment-seeking clinical samples. Participants (N=610) were psychiatric outpatients with principal DSM-IV diagnoses (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnoses of major depressive disorder (MDD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized social phobia (GSP), panic disorder with/without agoraphobia (PD; PD/A) or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Results suggest that approximately half of the variance in differences between these diagnoses is associated with specific characteristics represented by the FFM facets. Unique personality profiles for the MDD, GSP, PTSD and, to a lesser extent, OCD groups emerged. Broad traits of the FFM, when broken into more narrow components at the facet level, contribute significantly to the identification of unique aspects associated with specific mood and anxiety disorders. The integration of lower and higher levels of structural examination of the mood and anxiety disorders is discussed.