OBJECTIVE: To identify specific premorbid personality traits in patients with 
Alzheimer's disease (AD).
DESIGN: A prospective case-control study.
SETTING: A memory clinic of a department of geriatric medicine in a teaching 
hospital.
PATIENTS: Fifty-six consecutive patients with probable AD. Sixty-five controls 
with Parkinson's disease (PD).
MEASURES: Premorbid personality traits were assessed using the relative rating 
version of the Munich Personality Test (MPT).
RESULTS: The AD patients showed higher neuroticism than the controls with PD 
(p=0.013). In comparison with MPT normative values for psychiatric inpatients, 
the AD patients scored significantly (p<0.05) lower on neuroticism and higher on 
frustration tolerance and rigidity.
CONCLUSION: Our results support the assumption of specific premorbid 
characteristics in AD patients, ie increased neuroticism and rigidity. More 
research is needed to confirm the existence of typical premorbid personality 
traits in AD.