title: Is interpersonal sensitivity specific to non-melancholic depressions?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We investigated whether melancholic and non-melancholic Japanese depressive patients differed in regard to a personality feature, interpersonal sensitivity, as measured by the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM).
  
  
  METHODS
  In addition to 154 normal controls, 66 remitted melancholic patients and 55 remitted non-melancholic patients filled out the IPSM and two widely-used comprehensive personality inventories, the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and the Munich Personality Test (MPT). The subdivision of patients was made according to three major symptom-based criteria for melancholia (those of RDC, DSM-III, DSM-IV).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multivariate and post-hoc univariate analyses of variance revealed significant differences among the three groups in several personality dimensions after Bonferroni's adjustments of P values. While reported scores of both melancholic and non-melancholic patients deviated from normative scores on several personality dimensions, non-melancholic patients reported significantly higher scores on the total IPSM and the 'fragile inner-self' (a subscore of the IPSM) than did normal controls or melancholic depressives. The principal component analysis isolated two factors related to depressive disorders: one factor corresponding to the five IPSM scores; and the other corresponding to harm avoidance, neuroticism and frustration tolerance. The scores on the former factor differentiated non-melancholic depressives from melancholic depressives and normal controls. The scores on the latter factor differentiated both melancholic and non-melancholic depressives from normal controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prospective studies in which depressive subjects are subdivided into melancholic and non-melancholic subjects will be required to see whether the personality deviations here related to depressive disorders strongly reflect the premorbid personality function.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that the IPSM scales (particularly, the fragile inner-self scale and the total IPSM scale) are relatively independent of all dimensions included in the two comprehensive personality inventories, and have a capability to describe personality differences between non-melancholic depression and melancholia.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Kutsukake-cho, Dengakugakubo 1-98, Aichi, 470-1192, Toyoake City, Japan. tsato@fujita-hu.ac.jp
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Sato
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Narita
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Hirano
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Kusunoki
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Sakado
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Uehara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament