title: Personality disorders and the duration of depressive episode: a retrospective study.
abstract: In the present report from the Rhode Island Methods to Improve Diagnostic Assessment and Services (MIDAS) project we examined the relationship between chronicity of depression and personality disorders. Three hundred and eighty-five depressed outpatients were evaluated with semi-structured interviews. Duration of depression was analyzed as a continuous variable, and by subdividing patients by the DSM-IV (APA, 1994) chronic specifier (i.e., more or less than 2 years). Two separate regression analyses addressed the association between major depressive episode duration and each of the ten personality disorders found on Axis II. Although there was some difference between particular personality disorders associated with the two indicators of depressive duration, the results of the regression analyses indicate that the chronicity of depression is associated with personality disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University School of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rothschild
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012237:Rhode Island; D013997:Time Factors