PERSONALITY AND SYMPTOM PROFILES OF THE ANGRY HOSTILE DEPRESSED PATIENT

Fava, Rosenbaum, McCarthy, Pava, Steingard and Bless (1991) have recen tly proposed the existence of a subtype of depressed patients who expe rience anger attacks. The aim of this study was to assess if depressed patients categorized as high angry hostile have symptoms and personal ity profiles distinct from depressed patients categorized as low angry hostile. From a sample of 125 depressed outpatients, 26 patients were classified as high angry hostile and 25 patients as low angry hostile . The symptom profiles of these two groups were remarkably similar, wi th the high angry hostile patients exhibiting more interpersonal sensi tivity. The high angry hostile patients were rated as less interperson ally agreeable and less conscientious than low angry hostile patients. These results provide only partial support for the angry hostile subt ype of depression. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V .