April 5 : Psychologists at Purdue University have found a link between early death risk and neuroticism, a condition characterised by a propensity towards anxiousness and negative thinking.

People suffering from neuroticism do not handle stress well, and this condition has been linked to increased mortality in a number of previous studies.

However, Purdue University psychologist Daniel Mroczek claims that the new study not only shows that increased over time in neuroticism was a ticket to an early grave, but also that people with such propensity can change their destiny.

Mroczek used a standard measure of neuroticism to track more than 1600 men over 12 years. He recorded how neurotic the study subjects were at the start, and whether they got more or less neurotic over time. He also looked at mortality risk for these same men over an 18-year span.

The investigator noted that the participants, all middle age or older men, did not grow old gracefully. They likely got more and more stressed, worried or fretful, and this downward spiral increased their risk for dying, mostly from cancer and heart disease.

However, the study published in Psychological Science also showed that men with a fretful temperament had survival rates similar to those of emotionally stable men, if had managed to calm down a bit over time. (ANI)