Rc. Abrams et al., PERSONALITY-DISORDER CORRELATES OF LATE AND EARLY-ONSET DEPRESSION, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 42(7), 1994, pp. 727-731
OBJECTIVE: To compare the lifetime personality dysfunction of geriatri
c patients having late and early onset of major depression. DESIGN: Gr
oup comparisons. SETTING: Inpatient geriatric psychiatry unit and hosp
ital-based geriatric psychiatry outpatient clinic. PATIENTS: Volunteer
sample of recovered elderly depressives with history of early onset o
f major depression (age < 60) (n = 16) and history of late onset of ma
jor depression (age > 60) (n = 14). MAJOR OUTCOME MEASURE: Personality
Disorder Examination, containing diagnostic and dimensional scores fo
r DSM-III-R personality disorders. RESULTS: The two groups had similar
demographic profiles and levels of depression after treatment. Early
onset subjects had significantly higher mean dimensional scores in the
avoidant, dependent, and not otherwise specified NOS personality diso
rders, and higher dimensional scores with a trend toward significance
in 6 additional personality disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Early onset geriat
ric depressives may have more lifetime personality dysfunction than la
te onset subjects. Greater personality dysfunction in early onset subj
ects may reflect postdepressive changes, predisposition, or a low grad
e depressive subtype.