In boardrooms, classrooms, bedrooms and the playing field, we all recognise the classic signs of a “Type A” personality. And most of us know that these hard-chargers seem to be at higher risk of heart attacks and strokes.

But who has ever heard of the Type D personality? Depending on whom you ask, D stands for distressed. Or it follows sequentially from Type A; Type B (A’s opposite — laid-back, cooperative, slow to anger); Type C (a martyr — compliant, eager to please, and prone to hopelessness and depression; studies have shown Type Cs to be vulnerable to cancer and other malfunctions of the immune system).

In any event, Type Ds are notable for negative thinking, worrying, suppressed anger and a tendency to respond to stress by withdrawal and denial. They stew. They simmer. They blame themselves — and others.

And when it comes to feelings, they’re given to stoicism: They rarely give voice to strong emotions, such as anger, and are likely equally disinclined to acknowledge them, say, in daily journal entries.

Turns out, a Type D is not a personality type given to robust health, either, a fact that a new study underscores.

In an article in Archives of Surgery, Dutch researchers found that Type D personalities who suffer from peripheral artery disease — a build-up of plaque in the lower body’s veins and arteries that causes cramping and pain in the legs and pelvis — were more likely to die in the four years they were studied than fellow patients with peripheral artery disease who were not identified as Type Ds.

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