title: Anxious, irritable and hostile depression re-appraised.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  While classification of the depression disorders currently favors a dimensional model, this study considered the empirical support for a spectrum model linking personality with phenotypic depressive features, specifically examining patients with 'irritable', 'hostile' and 'anxious' depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pearson correlations were performed for Temperament and Personality (T&P) scales and state depressive patterns (irritable, hostile and anxious) for patients clinically diagnosed with unipolar melancholic and non-melancholic depressive conditions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Irritable depression was most strongly associated with T&P irritability and anxious depression with T&P anxious-worrying - although these associations lacked specificity and were also correlated with other T&P scales. Hostile depression was most strongly correlated with T&P irritability suggesting that hostile and irritable depression are synonymous patterns. There were no clear indications for more distinct associations for the non-melancholic, compared to the melancholic, subset.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Study findings are limited in that measures of state depressive patterns were relatively minimalistic and assignment to melancholic and non-melancholic conditions was measured by clinician judgment and may be subjective in nature.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings offer little support in the positioning of anxious and irritable/hostile depression as meaningfully differing patterns, nor for the spectrum model being more specific to the non-melancholic depressive conditions. There would appear to be little utility in preserving these depressive patterns as diagnostic constructs.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Black Dog Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: g.parker@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Gordon B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Black Dog Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Rebecca K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Graham
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D007508:Irritable Mood / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013694:Temperament
keywords: Classification; Depression; Personality; Spectrum model; Temperament