Neuroticism, Anxiety, and Depression Author(s): Hans J. Eysenck Source: Psychological Inquiry, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1991), pp.

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COMMENTARIES

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and Depression Anxiety, Neuroticism,

Institute ofPsychiatry University ofLondon Barlow'sanalysis ofemotional disorders a valupresents able contribution to a complex butleavesoutimporsubject tant on genetic andenvironmental evidence It relationships. also failsto notecertain factors-likecondipsychological totheobserved tioning-that contribute maylargely effects. it failsto notecertain Finally, extensions of the important model toareaslikecancer andcoronary heart disease(CHD). is concerned Mycommentary with all three areas,notnecesin a critical sarily spirit. 1. Therelationship between anddepression anxiety forms an important partof Barlow's review, but it neglects the important contribution madebyEaves,N. G. Martin, Heath, and Kendler N. G. Martin, and Henderson (1987), Jardine, (1984),andKendler, N. G. Martin, andEaves(1986). Heath, This literature is reviewed, and extended in summarized, Eaves, H. J. Eysenck,and N. G. Martin(1989), which shouldbe consulted as our finalstatement of results and conclusion. The material studied was theBedford, Foulds, and Sheffield (1976) Personality Disturbance Scale (DSSI), in theform which, used,consisted oftwo7-item subscales measuring, respectively, andDepression. Anxiety Alsoused was theEysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ; H. J.Eysenck& S. B. G. Eysenck,1975),particularly theNeuroticismscale. The population used was theAustralian Twin Study group; responses of3,798 adult twin pairswereavailable foranalysis.Analyses wereperformed bothforscales and forsingleitems. Thescaleanalysis showed that thecorrelation between the traits (neuroticism, anxiety, depression) was comparable to thereliability ofmeasurement: a very "Therefore, high proportion of thereliablevariation in anxiety and depression is duetothesamecommon symptoms factor measured bythe [Neuroticism] scaleoftheEPQ" (Eavesetal., 1989,p. 305). Thegenetic analysis showsquitehigh or Ew values(specific within-family environmental variance), butthisis onlyapparent. Whenwe interpret thelarge environmental specifics, we haveto remember that thesearecomparable to theerror variances assessedbyrepeated measures. Ifwe subtract measurement error from theestimates of specific variance, then we areleft with virtually no trait-specific environmental effects. Thus,ourmodelfor therelationship ofneuroticism to symptoms ofanxiety anddepression ina nonclinical populationis comparatively straightforward. Variation in self-reportsymptoms is therefore no different from that of other measures of personality. Furthermore, thephenotypic correlations between Neuroticism and thesymptom scales are high, indicating that thesamefactors contribute tovariation inall three scales. Anxiety andDepression scores arehighly correlated with eachother andwith Neuroticism scores.The genetic analysis of trait covariation givesstrong support to theviewthat thesamegenetic effects that contribute tosymptoms ofanxiety also contribute tomildsymptoms ofdepression.Thereis virtually no specific genetic variance ineither trait. In addition, all that thesesymptoms havein common with one another is also shared with theNeurotgenetically icismscoresderived from theEPQ. A similar view seemstrue fortheeffects of theenvironment.Short-term to spechangesapart-whichcontribute cific environmental all theenvironmenvariation-virtually inNeuroticism talvariation andscoreson theDSSI Anxiety and Depression effect subscaleshas a general on all scales. Long-term environmental effects to all traits contribute simultaneously. ThatNeuroticism, and Depression Anxiety, are notcompletely is probably correlated due to short-term fluctuations rather thanto an underlying in the difference genetic basisofthetraits. Insofar as neuroticism is a "trait" measure andanxiety anddepression as recorded, symptoms, are "state"measures, we expect that thespecific variation in anxiety and depression wouldbe due largely to short-term fluctuations. In general, ouranalysis showsthat neuroticism, as found previously, is highly heritable in bothsexes. Anxiety and depression arefar more influenced byenvironmental effects, some of whichprecipitate the expression of depressive symptoms without affecting anxiety. Itseemsthat thespecific environmental effects found for thescores on theAnxiety andDepression subscales arecausedbyshort-term environmental effects:
One major ofthemodel implication is that genetically "vulnerable" individuals maydevelopsymptoms of ordepression anxiety atdifferent times intheir life as a function oftheparticular kind ofenvironmental stress that to be operating at thetime happens offollow-up. (Eaves et al., 1989,p. 313)

Hans J. Eysenck

Atthelevelofitem analysis, andofparticular interest for Barlow'sargument, we havethe finding that, for the"panic" item, analysis interms ofVA(additive genetic variance) and environmental variance)gives a fairly Ew (within-family good fitto thedata,whereas a significant improvement resultsfrom the addition of a dominance parameter to the model.It is notsuggested that ourdatacontradict Barlow's model;it is merely proposed that consideration of thevery detailed andcomplex datahere very briefly andinadequately presented wouldextend and improve hismodel. 2. Barlow'sdiscussion offear andanxiety rightly emphasizes their essential difference but neglects to discussthe theory thatanxiety is produced by a processof Pavlovian conditioning-Pavlovian B conditioning, tobeprecise (H. J. Eysenck,1976, 1979). This fairly obvioushypothesis that anxiety is a learned kindof fearwas already proposed by Cicero2,000 years ago inhisTusculan Itdoes Disputations. notseemright to abandon sucha venerable which in theory, anycase has beenwelltranslated intomodern concepts and has received considerable support (H. J.Eysenck & I. Martin,1987). Barlowmaynotapprove ofthetheory, butitnot onlyexplains therelation between fear andanxiety butalso suggests theorigins of neurosis, its genetic basis, and its

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76

COMMENTARIES

& M. W. Eysenck, relation to personality (H. J. Eysenck 1985). the ofanxiety, not Thetheory only explains origins depresroots that italso suggests sion,andneurosis; biological may form andbehavior thelinkbetween heredity (H. J.Eysenck itsadaptive & Kelley, which 1987).Italso explains function, forits geneticsurvival; no doubtaccounts it foreshadows andhelpstheorganism toavoidthat danger danger. Again,it is notsuggested that what is saidhere inanysenseinvalidates itmore andbrings Barlow's model; itmerely makes specific it hasnotbeencovered. intolinewith a largebodyofdatathat ofthemodelto 3. A final an extension proposal suggests take into accountpsychosomatic illnesses-in particular, cancer andCHD. Thereis nowa great deal ofevidence that suggests a close relation and between suppressed anxiety cancerand between suppressed angerand CHD (H. J.Eysenck,1985, 1988a, 1988b,1990;Grossarth-Maticek, H. J. & Vetter, Eysenck, andfeelings 1988).Depression ofhopeinparticular, lessness-helplessness, arecloselyrelated predictively ofcancer, andCHD toois linked tothegenesis with suppression of feelings andineffective to stressreactions as proposed ofthe"Type notexactly although byadherents A" personality theory (H. J.Eysenck, 1990). of the richand important Exploration areas relating to personality, anxiety, depression, and disease would stress, allow a further extension ofthemodeltoward which we are all working and some of whose properties Barlow has inhisarticle. sketched The more that related features can be taken into account, thelesslikely arewe tomisssomeimportantaspectsor to misconstrue some vitalclues. Factually oriented efforts toconstruct sucha model, likeBarlow's,are certainly tobe welcomed; bytheir refinement, improvement, andextension, we mayfinally arrive at a better understandingofthese exceedingly complex relationships. Particularly welcome is Barlow'srecognition ofourbiosocialnature (H. J.Eysenck, 1980a,1980b), placing equalemphasis on social and biological,geneticand environmental, psychological and physiological-hormonal factors in explaining behavior and cognition.Such a shiftfrompurelyenvironmental "empty organisms" theories has beenlongoverdue! Note Hans J. Eysenck,Institute of Psychiatry, University of London,Denmark Hill, DeCrespigny Park,London,SE5 8AF, England.

References
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