A cross-sectional study about associations between personality characteristics and mental health service utilization in a Korean national community sample of adults with psychiatric disorders

BACKGROUND: Personality traits are not only associated with psychiatric symptoms, but also with treatment seeking behavior. Our purpose was to examine the relationship between mental health service utilization and personality characteristics in a nationwide community sample of Korean adults. METHOD: Of the 6022 subjects aged 18–74 years who participated in the Korean Epidemiologic Catchment Area study, 1544 (25.6%) with a lifetime diagnosis of any DSM-IV psychiatric disorder were analyzed. Diagnostic assessments were based on the Composite International Diagnostic Interview and personality constructs were measured by Big Five Personality Inventory-10. RESULTS: Of the 1544 participants, 275 (17.8%) had used mental health services. Multivariate analyses revealed positive associations between mental health service utilization and both neuroticism and openness, and an inverse association between mental health service utilization and agreeableness. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that specific personality traits may have a role in treatment-seeking behaviors for mental health problems independent of the psychiatric disorder.