The authors examined the relationship of personality traits and
personality disorder to depressive subtype, descriptive characteristics,
and outcome in 160 depressed inpatients. Personality disorder was
significantly more common in unipolar nonmelancholic depressed patients
(61%) than in unipolar melancholic (14%) or bipolar depressed patients
(23%). Personality disorder did not affect symptom manifestation but was
related to earlier onset of depressive illness and worse outcome within the
unipolar nonmelancholic group. Obsessive traits were most common in the
unipolar melancholic patients, while histrionic, hostile, and borderline
traits predominated in the nonmelancholic patients. The authors discuss the
usefulness of a multiaxial diagnostic system and the importance of
separating trait and disorder in personality assessment.Abstract Teaser