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Personality and Symptom Pattern in Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

E. S. Paykel
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital and Medical School, London, S.W.17
G. L. Klerman
Affiliation:
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
B. A. Prusoff
Affiliation:
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Summary

This paper reports relationships between symptoms and premorbid personality in a varied sample of depressed patients. Symptoms were rated by a psychiatrist at clinical interview; personality was rated by patients on self-report after clinical improvement, using the Maudsley Personality Inventory and an inventory of obsessive, hysterical and oral personality. Additional ratings on the latter were obtained at interview with a relative. The most prominent finding was that patients with premorbid neuroticism also showed a neurotic rather than an endogenous symptom pattern. Additional relationships were relatively weak but consistent with previous studies. Depressives with neurotic rather than endogenous symptom pattern showed more evidence of oral dependent personality and less obsessionality. Patients with hysterical personalities tended to be less severely ill and to show a pattern characterized by mixed depression and hostility with less evidence of anxiety.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1976 

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