H. Sauer et al., PERSONALITY-DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PATIENTS WITH MAJOR DEPRESSION AND BIPOLAR DISORDER - THE IMPACT OF MINOR SYMPTOMS ON SELF-RATINGS OF PERSONALITY, Journal of affective disorders, 42(2-3), 1997, pp. 169-177
The study explores whether minor symptoms of patients in recovery from
a mood disorder have an impact on self-ratings of personality with sp
ecial consideration of potential differences between diagnostic groups
. 90 recovered DSM-III-R major unipolar depressives and 167 recovered
bipolars were compared with respect to scale values of the Munich Pers
onality Test (MPT). Major depressives showed significantly higher scor
es on the MPT scales Rigidity and Orientation towards Social Norms, an
d lower scores on Extraversion than the bipolar patients. Using a LISR
EL-model, psychopathology was found to have a significant impact on Ne
uroticism and Extraversion, but not on Rigidity and on Orientation tow
ards Social Norms. Controlling for symptomatology, the differences in
the MPT scale values of the two diagnostic groups remained significant
and can hardly be sufficiently explained by residual symptomatology.
(C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.