Changes in personality traits during treatment with sertraline citalopram

Background Recent studies indicate that selective serotonin re-uptake inhib itors (SSRIs) reduce the symptoms accompanying personality disorders and mo dulate a normal personality. Aims To examine the effect of two SSRIs, sertraline and citalopram, on pers onality traits in major depressed patients. Method Personality traits were evaluated at baseline and after six months u sing the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP). Results After treatment, significant changes in the direction of normalisat ion were seen in all scales. To determine whether the observed changes coul d be explained by improved depressive symptoms. multiple stepwise regressio ns with the separate KSP as dependent variables were performed. Improvement s in depressive symptoms only accounted for 0-8.4% of the observed variance . Conclusions In depressed patients treated with SSRIs significant effects ar e seen on personality traits measured by the KSP. Declaration of interest The present study is a separate part of a large stu dy financially supported by Pfizer AB.