ten Have, Oldehinkel, Vollebergh, & Ormel, 2005). In addition, persons with comorbid mental disorders have significantly poorer physical health and are more likely to be high-end users of medical services (Rush et al., 2005). This means that neuroticism is centrally important to public health partly because persons with high levels of neuroticism are at high risk for having the most serious, impairing, and costly mental health problems. The combined estimated 12-month prevalence of the many Axis I and II mental disorders shown to be moderately to strongly correlated with neuroticism is upwards of 20% of the U.S. population (Narrow, Rae, Robins, & Regier, 2002). Given the enormous personal distress and impairment associated with these mental disorders and their overall impact on the economy (Merikangas et al., 2007), the association of neuroticism with mental disorders is no small matter.
