Relationships Between Personality and Clinical and Emotional Characteristics of the Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

Introduction

Robust relationships between personality and depression have been repeatedly reported, including a high negative-affectivity score and a low constraint score, as measured by harm avoidance (HA) and selfdirectedness (SD), respectively, as regards to Cloninger's biosocial model. However, the relationships between personality and fine-grained characteristics of depression (such as emotional and neurocognitive patterns, and the nature and intensity of depressive symptoms) have been poorly documented.

Objectives

Therefore, the present study investigates the relationships between personality and specific symptoms and characteristics of depression.

Aims

We aim to help understanding the mediating processes involved in personality-depression relationships.

Methods

43 inpatients with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder (17 males, 20-60 year-old) fulfilled the TCI-R personality questionnaire, the Beck depression inventory-II and the PANAS-X emotion scale. Patients also completed a behavioral and electrophysiological testing including several alert tasks and an EEG at rest.

Results

HA and SD are related to cognitive but not somatic symptoms of depression, and more particularly symptoms accounting for the negative attitude toward self. Interestingly, characters but not temperaments were related to the emotional pattern in depressed participants: high SD to less negative emotions and high self-transcendence to more positive emotions. Right frontal alpha asymmetry was related to HA, SD and positive emotions.

Conclusions

Despite several limitations, the present results shed some light on the mediating role of emotions and neurocognitive pattern in personality-depression relationships.