Browsing by Author "Terracciano, Antonio"

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    Five-Factor Model personality profiles of drug users.
    (BMC psychiatry, 2008-04-11) Terracciano, Antonio; Löckenhoff, Corinna E; Crum, Rosa M; Bienvenu, O Joseph; Costa, Paul T

    Background

    Personality traits are considered risk factors for drug use, and, in turn, the psychoactive substances impact individuals' traits. Furthermore, there is increasing interest in developing treatment approaches that match an individual's personality profile. To advance our knowledge of the role of individual differences in drug use, the present study compares the personality profile of tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin users and non-users using the wide spectrum Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality in a diverse community sample.

    Method

    Participants (N = 1,102; mean age = 57) were part of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) program in Baltimore, MD, USA. The sample was drawn from a community with a wide range of socio-economic conditions. Personality traits were assessed with the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R), and psychoactive substance use was assessed with systematic interview.

    Results

    Compared to never smokers, current cigarette smokers score lower on Conscientiousness and higher on Neuroticism. Similar, but more extreme, is the profile of cocaine/heroin users, which score very high on Neuroticism, especially Vulnerability, and very low on Conscientiousness, particularly Competence, Achievement-Striving, and Deliberation. By contrast, marijuana users score high on Openness to Experience, average on Neuroticism, but low on Agreeableness and Conscientiousness.

    Conclusion

    In addition to confirming high levels of negative affect and impulsive traits, this study highlights the links between drug use and low Conscientiousness. These links provide insight into the etiology of drug use and have implications for public health interventions.
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    Harmonization of Neuroticism and Extraversion phenotypes across inventories and cohorts in the Genetics of Personality Consortium: an application of Item Response Theory.
    (Behavior genetics, 2014-07) van den Berg, Stéphanie M; de Moor, Marleen HM; McGue, Matt; Pettersson, Erik; Terracciano, Antonio; Verweij, Karin JH; Amin, Najaf; Derringer, Jaime; Esko, Tõnu; van Grootheest, Gerard; Hansell, Narelle K; Huffman, Jennifer; Konte, Bettina; Lahti, Jari; Luciano, Michelle; Matteson, Lindsay K; Viktorin, Alexander; Wouda, Jasper; Agrawal, Arpana; Allik, Jüri; Bierut, Laura; Broms, Ulla; Campbell, Harry; Smith, George Davey; Eriksson, Johan G; Ferrucci, Luigi; Franke, Barbera; Fox, Jean-Paul; de Geus, Eco JC; Giegling, Ina; Gow, Alan J; Grucza, Richard; Hartmann, Annette M; Heath, Andrew C; Heikkilä, Kauko; Iacono, William G; Janzing, Joost; Jokela, Markus; Kiemeney, Lambertus; Lehtimäki, Terho; Madden, Pamela AF; Magnusson, Patrik KE; Northstone, Kate; Nutile, Teresa; Ouwens, Klaasjan G; Palotie, Aarno; Pattie, Alison; Pesonen, Anu-Katriina; Polasek, Ozren; Pulkkinen, Lea; Pulkki-Råback, Laura; Raitakari, Olli T; Realo, Anu; Rose, Richard J; Ruggiero, Daniela; Seppälä, Ilkka; Slutske, Wendy S; Smyth, David C; Sorice, Rossella; Starr, John M; Sutin, Angelina R; Tanaka, Toshiko; Verhagen, Josine; Vermeulen, Sita; Vuoksimaa, Eero; Widen, Elisabeth; Willemsen, Gonneke; Wright, Margaret J; Zgaga, Lina; Rujescu, Dan; Metspalu, Andres; Wilson, James F; Ciullo, Marina; Hayward, Caroline; Rudan, Igor; Deary, Ian J; Räikkönen, Katri; Arias Vasquez, Alejandro; Costa, Paul T; Keltikangas-Järvinen, Liisa; van Duijn, Cornelia M; Penninx, Brenda WJH; Krueger, Robert F; Evans, David M; Kaprio, Jaakko; Pedersen, Nancy L; Martin, Nicholas G; Boomsma, Dorret I
    Mega- or meta-analytic studies (e.g. genome-wide association studies) are increasingly used in behavior genetics. An issue in such studies is that phenotypes are often measured by different instruments across study cohorts, requiring harmonization of measures so that more powerful fixed effect meta-analyses can be employed. Within the Genetics of Personality Consortium, we demonstrate for two clinically relevant personality traits, Neuroticism and Extraversion, how Item-Response Theory (IRT) can be applied to map item data from different inventories to the same underlying constructs. Personality item data were analyzed in >160,000 individuals from 23 cohorts across Europe, USA and Australia in which Neuroticism and Extraversion were assessed by nine different personality inventories. Results showed that harmonization was very successful for most personality inventories and moderately successful for some. Neuroticism and Extraversion inventories were largely measurement invariant across cohorts, in particular when comparing cohorts from countries where the same language is spoken. The IRT-based scores for Neuroticism and Extraversion were heritable (48 and 49 %, respectively, based on a meta-analysis of six twin cohorts, total N = 29,496 and 29,501 twin pairs, respectively) with a significant part of the heritability due to non-additive genetic factors. For Extraversion, these genetic factors qualitatively differ across sexes. We showed that our IRT method can lead to a large increase in sample size and therefore statistical power. The IRT approach may be applied to any mega- or meta-analytic study in which item-based behavioral measures need to be harmonized.