The aim of the present study is to compare the results of genome-wide SNP and gene-based analyses for neuroticism and extraversion personality traits, and symptoms of anxiety, depression and general psychological distress. These measures were all based on continua, sampled from population-based cohorts living in Europe. Whereas the cohorts varied in age, personality is largely stable across the lifetime and these stable effects in later life are predominantly genetic in origin (Johnson et al. 2005); so, too, are the genetic determinants of anxiety and depression (Gillespie et al. 2004). It is this stable genetic variance that is of interest to the present study. Replication cohorts were available from Australia, Germany and The Netherlands.
