title: Personality in remitted major depressive disorder with single and recurrent episodes assessed with the Temperament and Character Inventory.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies consistently reported increased harm avoidance (HA) assessed with the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, such findings may have been related with depression severity and number of depressive episodes. The aims of the present study were twofold: to examine TCI personality profile in remitted MDD (DSM-IV) patients and to compare TCI personality between MDD patients with single episode (SGL-MDD) and those with recurrent episodes (REC-MDD) in order to elucidate personality profile associated with recurrence.
  
  
  METHODS
  TCI was administered to 86 outpatients with remitted SGL-MDD (12 male and 17 female patients; mean age 43.2 ± 12.1 years) and REC-MDD (26 male and 31 female patients; 40.3 ± 11.6 years), and 529 healthy controls (225 men and 304 women; 43.4 ± 15.5 years), matched for age, sex and education years. Logistic regression analyses were performed in which single/recurrent episodes of depression were the dependent variable and age, sex, age of onset, family history of psychiatric disease and TCI scores were entered as possible predictors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The remitted MDD patients had significantly higher scores on HA (P < 0.001) and lower scores on self-directedness (P < 0.001), compared with the controls. HA (P = 0.03), its subscore, fatigability (P = 0.03), and family history of psychiatric disease were found to be positive predictors for recurrence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are differences in personality profile between remitted MDD patients and controls, and between remitted REC-MDD and SGL-MDD patients, suggesting that they are trait markers. HA and fatigability might be useful to assess risk for recurrence of depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshiya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Teraishi
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hori
authors.forename: Daimei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sasayama
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Matsuo
authors.forename: Shintaro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.forename: Ikki
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nagashima
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.forename: Miho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ota
authors.forename: Kotaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hattori
authors.forename: Teruhiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Higuchi
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kunugi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012008:Recurrence; D012074:Remission Induction
keywords: Temperament and Character Inventory; harm avoidance; major depression; recurrence; remission