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Summer 2010 | Vol 13 No 4

Research update

Mark de la Hey

Hostility may link depressive mood and mortality

Depressive mood is known to be associated with an increased risk of death. Now, new research from the European Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris indicates that much of that association may be explained by hostility. Researchers followed 14,356 employees of the French national gas and electricity companies over an average of 15 years, beginning in 1989. Employees were asked to fill out questionnaires assessing their mood and personality. By the end of the study, 687 of the participants had died. Mortality was predicted by depressive mood, even after taking into account variables such as age, sex, education level, body mass index, alcohol consumption and smoking. However, adjusting for hostility (hostile thoughts) considerably reduced this association. On the other hand, hostility was the only personality trait that remained significantly associated with mortality after taking into account depressive mood and the full set of variables. Mortality was not predicted by type A personality, challenging previous findings that linked type A personality with ill health and mortality. The authors speculate that hostility may increase mortality by promoting depressive mood, or depressive mood could result in more hostility, which in turn might increase mortality. They recommend further research to determine whether therapeutic interventions that target hostility could improve health outcomes associated with depressive mood in both healthy and ill individuals.

Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 2010, v. 79 (3): 164–171. Cédric Lemogne et al., Department of C-L Psychiatry, European Georges Pompidou Hospital, Paris, France.