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Personality features of patients with primary affective disorder
Author(s) -
Liebowitz M. R.,
Stallone F.,
Dunner D. L.,
Fieve R. F.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1979.tb03590.x
Subject(s) - psychology , personality , clinical psychology , personality disorders , borderline personality disorder , psychiatry , psychotherapist , social psychology
personality variables were assessed in outpatients with primary affective disorder by use of the Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) and the Marke Nyman Temperament Scale (MNTS). Significant differences between diagnostic groups were initially noted for the extraversion and neuroticism scales of the MPI. However, when mood was more rigorously controlled for, these differences largely disappeared, while interdiagnostic differences for the solidity scale of the MNTS emerged. The findings suggest that these measured aspects of personality may be quite state (mood) dependent even when patients are given test instructions previously reported to minimize mood effects. This was born out in a follow‐up study for the N scale, but not the E scale, of the MPI. These data indicate that assessment of neutroticism in affectively ill patients will be contaminated by the presence of even mild depressive symptoms, a finding that has important implications for studies of personality in affective disorder.