What is known about the association between personality and functional somatic disorders? A narrative review

AimPersonality traits are assumed to be important predisposing/maintaining factors in Functional Somatic Disorders (FSDs), however, few efforts have been made to summarize the literature across FSD subtypes. We conducted a narrative review of studies examining the association between personality constructs across various subtypes of FSD.MethodsStudies were identified via a) data-base searches in PubMed and PsychInfo (January 2023), b) review of author's archives and c) snowballing. Inclusion criteria required studies to be empirical/review studies in English describing the association between personality (i.e., with a Big Five measure or a measure of personality disorder) and 5 predefined FSD subtypes: somatization disorder, somatic symptom disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia. Results wereResultsA total of 92 studies were included. Studies tended to show higher neuroticism across FSD subtypes, but associations were inconsistent for extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness. Studies mostly showed increased rates of personality disorders (PDs) and abnormal personality traits in FSD patients relative to healthy control groups or population base rates, though significant variance was observed (between 8.7 and 96% for PD diagnoses).ConclusionStudies predominantly supported an association between specific personality traits and across FSD subtypes. Nevertheless, the study designs make it hard to infer the causal role of traits, and the methodological heterogeneity of studies makes synthesis of findings difficult. The strength of this review is that it covers multiple FSD subtypes. It is limited by its search strategy and narrative synthesis of findings.