In addition, it is possible, but by no means certain, that innovative approaches to prevention could be developed based on the predictive relation between neuroticism and adverse outcomes. For example, it has been suggested that mental health clinicians routinely administer a five-factor personality scale to determine if more extensive assessments of personality disorders related to neuroticism and other traits should be conducted (Widiger & Trull, 2007). Analogously, it might be possible to inexpensively screen large numbers of individuals in the community for high neuroticism scores (e.g., over the internet). For these reasons, it is useful to speculate about ways in which screening for neuroticism could possibly play a role in future prevention strategies.
