The Biographical Personality Interview (BPI)--a new approach to the assessment of premorbid personality in psychiatric research. Part II: Psychometric properties

Stress, personality and depressive symptoms in a 6.5 year follow-up of subjects at familial risk for affective disorders and controls

BACKGROUND

The aim of the study was to identify risk factors in subjects at risk for depressive disorders and controls.

METHODS

In a 6.5 year follow-up study we examined the effects of personality (neuroticism, frustration intolerance, rigidity, melancholic type), adverse life events and chronic difficulties on depressive symptoms in 89 high-risk subjects (HRS, siblings and children of patients suffering from an affective disorder), without any mental illness at wave 1 (T1), and 49 controls without any personal and family history of psychiatric disorder at T1. To this end, regression analysis and path analysis using a structural equation model (only for HRS) were performed.

RESULTS

Risk factors for depressive symptoms at wave 2 (T2) in HRS comprised acute adverse life events, frustration intolerance (T1) and depressive symptoms (T1). Risk factors for depressive symptoms in controls included chronic difficulties, neuroticism and rigidity. HRS had less stressful life events and the same risk for chronic difficulties, but perceived adverse events as more stressful.

LIMITATION

The sample size of the control group is too small for identifying slight effects.

CONCLUSION

Our results indicate that the impact on the emergence of depressive symptoms of various risk factors is different in high-risk subjects and controls. High-risk subjects are more sensitive to the depressogenic effects of acute stress and thus avoid potential stressful changes in their life to a higher extent. On the other hand, the influence of persistent factors such as personality traits (neuroticism, rigidity) and chronic difficulties on subsequent depressive symptoms was less pronounced in HRS as compared to controls.

Social functioning and personality of subjects at familial risk for affective disorder

BACKGROUND

Particular patterns of personality (e.g., neuroticism, obsessionality) and difficulties in various social roles have been found to be associated with unipolar depression. Interpersonal and instrumental difficulties of depressives can be understood either as a risk factor, or as a consequence caused by the disorder itself. Concerning patients with bipolar disorder, there is some evidence that their premorbid level of occupational and educational achievement is often superior when compared to the premorbid functioning of patients with unipolar depression.

METHODS

Personality features and the level of social functioning of 114 high-risk subjects (healthy first-degree relatives of patients suffering from an affective disorder) have been investigated using self- and expert-ratings. Sixty-three subjects without a personal and family history of psychiatric disorder served as the reference group.

RESULTS

Relatives of melancholic depressives described themselves as more neurotic than controls but proved to be inconspicuous regarding their role functioning. Relatives of bipolar I patients were more strongly oriented toward social norms, and their instrumental role functioning was superior to that of controls. Neuroticism was strongly associated with depressive symptoms.

LIMITATION

The statistical power of our data is sufficient to detect medium effect sizes but is insufficient for identifying small group differences.

CONCLUSION

Whether these discriminating personality features and other variables (not characterising the high-risk group (HRG) as a whole) act as true vulnerability factor have to be clarified by a follow-up investigation.

Development of an integrated model of personality, personality disorders and severe axis I disorders, with special reference to major affective disorders

A unidimensional model of the relationships between normal temperament, psychopathic variants of it and the two main forms of so-called endogenous psychoses (major affective disorders and schizophrenia) was derived from Kretschmer's constitutional typology. It was, however, not confirmed by means of a biometric approach nor was Kretschmer's broad concept of cyclothymia as a correlate of physical stoutness on the one hand and major affective disorders on the other supported by empirical data. Yet the concept of the 'melancholic type' of personality of patients with severe unipolar major depression (melancholia) which resembles descriptions by psychoanalysts could be corroborated. This was also true for the 'manic type' of personality as a (premorbid) correlate of predominantly manic forms of a bipolar I disorder. As predicted from a spectrum concept of major affective disorders, the ratio of traits of either type co-varied with the ratio of the depressive and the manic components in the long-term course of such a disorder. The two types of premorbid personality and a rare variant of the 'manic type', named 'relaxed, easy-going type', were conceived as 'affective types' dominating in major affective disorders. They are opposed to three 'neurotoid types' prevailing in so-called neurotic disorders as well as in schizophrenic psychoses. The similarity among the types can be visualized as spatial relationships in a circular, i.e. a two-dimensional, model (circumplex). Personality disorders as maladapted extreme variants of personality are, by definition, located outside the circle, mainly along its 'neurotoid' side. However, due to their transitional nature, axis I disorders cannot be represented adequately within the plane which represents (adapted as well as maladapted) forms of habitual behaviour (personality types and disorders, respectively). To integrate them into the spatial model of similarity interrelations, a dimension of actual psychopathology has to be added to the two-dimensional plane as a third (orthogonal) axis. The distance of a case from the 'ground level' of habitual behaviour corresponds with the severity of the actual psychopathological state. The specific form of that state (e.g. manic or depressive), however, varies along one the axes which define the circumplex of habitual behaviour. This three-dimensional model is, by its very nature, more complex than the unidimensional one derived from Kretschmer's typological concept, but it is clearly more in accordance with empirical data.

Personality in patients with affective disorders and their relatives

BACKGROUND

In studies of both patients and high-risk subjects, particular patterns of personality have been found to be associated with affective disorders. Neuroticism and features of the melancholic type of personality seem to be risk factors for depression while premorbid features of the manic type of personality predominate in patients with more manic than depressive episodes. While neuroticism prevails in the majority of mental disorders, the 'affective' personality variants appear to be more specifically associated with affective disorders.

METHODS

Personality features were investigated in 122 recovered patients with affective disorders, 58 first-degree relatives (high-risk subjects (HR)) and in the respective control groups (n=48; n=29). Patients were subdivided into: unipolar depression (melancholic subtype); bipolar II; bipolar I with more depressive episodes and bipolar I with more manic episodes. Personality measures were based on the Biographical Personality Interview (BPI) and the Munich Personality Test (MPT).

RESULTS

The melancholic personality type (BPI) decreased from the unipolar depressives to the mainly manic group, while features of the manic type increased. MPT scores failed to discriminate between subgroups of patients. HR were significantly more introverted and had a stronger orientation towards social norms than controls according to the MPT, and showed a tendency towards the melancholic type according to the BPI.

LIMITATIONS

The sizes of some groups or subgroups are relatively small. Therefore, they have to be enlarged in the continuation of the study so as to increase the power of the statistical tests and thus to ascertain the robustness of the results.

CONCLUSION

Features of the typus melancholicus seem to be a risk factor for depression. The identification of highly predictive risk factors provides an opportunity for the development of prevention programs.