PERSONALITY-DISORDERS IN PATIENTS WITH WINTER DEPRESSION

Sixty-six patients satisfying the criteria for seasonal affective diso rder (SAD) winter depression type (n = 57) or subsyndromal SAD (n = 9) , were interviewed in a nondepressed state with the Structured Intervi ew for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders (SIDP-R). Twenty-three percent of the patients in the SAD sample met DSM-III-R criteria for one or mo re categorical diagnosis of personality disorder (PD). Disorders in cl uster C occurred in 18% of the sample, while 12% had cluster B PDs and 5% a cluster A disorder. The relative number of positive criteria, as a dimensional measure of PD, were higher for all cluster C disorders than for any PD in the other clusters. Our data indicate that the patt ern of personality disorders in patients with winter SAD are similar t o that previously reported for outpatients with non-SAD major depressi on. We explored the relationship between lifetime severity and clinica l manifestation of SAD and dimensional measures of PD with multiple re gression analyses. No significant association was found. This is in ac cordance with the hypothesis that the two disorders are distinct condi tions with independent causes.