The Personality Traits as Risk Factors for the Development of Cognitive Impairment and Affective Symptomatology in Patients with COVID-19: The Pilot Study

Abstract

The current pilot study has been carried out in order to find the possible relationships between premorbid personality traits and cognitive impairments and affective symptomatology in patients recovered from COVID-19. Thirty subjects with so-called post-COVID-19 syndrome have been included into study. The diagnosis of COVID-19 has been previously confirmed by laboratory tests in each person. The control group included 30 healthy persons. For the assessment of depression and anxiety, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale has been used. For the assessment of cognitive impairment, Verbal Fluency test, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test, and Wisconsin Card Sorting test (WCST) were used. The Munich Personality Scale and Toronto Alexithymia Scale were used for the assessment of premorbid personality. The multiple stepwise regression analysis has been used for the assessment of relationships between premorbid personality constructs and cognitive tests results and affective and anxiety symptomatology. Obtained results have shown that Frustration Tolerance test decreased the number of wrong answers in WCST and reduced the latency of the answers with positive reinforcement and also reduced the depression level and by that had the positive effects. On the other hand, Extraversion reduced the score of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test and increased the percentage of perseverative wrong answers in WCST-2 test and by that had negative effect on cognitive functions. Similarly, constructs of Adherence to Social Norms and Tendencies to Isolation both reduced the final MOCA score and by that predisposed to post-COVID-19 syndrome development. Esoteric tendencies construct reduced the latencies of answers with positive and negative reinforcement in WCST-3 and WCST-4 and by that had protective influence on cognitive functions. Alexithymia score correlated positively with Depression, while Neuroticism correlated positively with Anxiety.