Neuroticism Research: A Narrative Review
Tiffany Field
ABSTRACT
This narrative review of the current literature on neuroticism is a summary of research published in 2024-2025. Several negative psychological effects have been noted for neuroticism including poor relationship quality, dream anxiety, excessive social media use, social aggression, stuttering, panic disorder, substance misuse, suicidality and dementia. Negative physical effects have also resulted from neuroticism including odor memory, gastrointestinal disturbance, cardiovascular disease, small vessel disease, aneurysms, frailty and as many as 37 overlapping diseases. Risk factors/predictors for neuroticism have also appeared in this current literature including emotional abuse, worry and rumination, depression and gastrointestinal microbiome composition. A few buffers or protective factors for the negative effects of neuroticism include self-compassion, mindfulness, quality sleep, Mediterranean diet and physical activity. Potential underlying biological mechanisms that have been the focus of research in the current literature on neuroticism include cytokines, activation in the default mode network, activity in the amygdala, less gray matter and more white matter in different regions of the brain, and heritability. Methodological limitations include the absence of bi-directionality analyses for many of the variables that are seemingly reciprocal with neuroticism and the absence of intervention studies.
