Am J Psychiatry 1993; 150:1718-1724
Copyright © 1993 by American Psychiatric Association
Depressive personality in nonclinical subjects
DN Klein and GA Miller
Department of Psychology, School of Medicine, State University of New York at Stony Brook 11794-2500.
OBJECTIVE: This study explored the reliability and clinical correlates of
the depressive personality in nonclinical subjects. In particular, the
authors were interested in determining the relationship between depressive
personality and mood disorders. METHOD: The subjects were 185 college
students who were selected by using a battery of screening inventories
assessing a variety of psychopathological symptoms and traits. The subjects
were given structured diagnostic interviews that included a section on
depressive temperament. RESULTS: There were significant relationships
between depressive personality and lifetime. DSM-III diagnoses of major
depression and dysthymia. However, the magnitude of the associations was
modest, indicating that these are distinct, although overlapping
constructs. In addition, the subjects with depressive personality (N = 36)
had significantly greater impairment and a higher rate of mood disorders in
their first-degree relatives than did the subjects without depressive
personality (N = 149). Moreover, these results were evident even after the
subjects with a lifetime history of mood disorder were excluded.
CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that depressive personality is a clinically
important condition that is not subsumed by existing mood disorders
categories but can be viewed as falling within the affective spectrum.
