Excessive dependency and depression: is the relationship specific?

ChatGPT and mental health: Friends or foes?

Background

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) language model that has gained popularity as a virtual assistant because of its exceptional capacity to solve problems and make decisions. However, there are some ways in which technological misuse and incorrect interpretations can have potentially hazardous consequences for a user's mental health.

Discussion

Because it lacks real-time fact-checking capabilities, ChatGPT may create misleading or erroneous information. Considering AI technology has the potential to influence a person's thinking, we anticipate ChatGPT's future repercussions on mental health by considering instances in which inappropriate usage may lead to mental disorders. While several studies have demonstrated how the AI model may transform mental health care and therapy, certain drawbacks, including bias and privacy violations, have also been identified.

Conclusion

Educating people and organizing workshops on AI technology usage, strengthening privacy measures, and updating ethical standards are crucial initiatives to prevent misuse and resultant dire impacts on mental health. Longitudinal research on the potential of these platforms to impact a variety of mental health problems is recommended in the future.

Basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration in major depressive disorder

Basic psychological needs theory postulates that a social environment that satisfies individuals' three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness leads to optimal growth and well-being. On the other hand, the frustration of these needs is associated with ill-being and depressive symptoms foremost investigated in non-clinical samples; yet, there is a paucity of research on need frustration in clinical samples. Survey data were compared between adult individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD; n = 115; 48.69% female; 38.46 years, SD = 10.46) with those of a non-depressed comparison sample (n = 201; 53.23% female; 30.16 years, SD = 12.81). Need profiles were examined with a linear mixed model (LMM). Individuals with depression reported higher levels of frustration and lower levels of satisfaction in relation to the three basic psychological needs when compared to non-depressed adults. The difference between depressed and non-depressed groups was significantly larger for frustration than satisfaction regarding the needs for relatedness and competence. LMM correlation parameters confirmed the expected positive correlation between the three needs. This is the first study showing substantial differences in need-based experiences between depressed and non-depressed adults. The results confirm basic assumptions of the self-determination theory and have preliminary implications in tailoring therapy for depression.

Nightmare experience and personality disorder functioning styles in healthy volunteers and nightmare disorder patients

Nightmares are prevalent in psychiatric disorders, and personality disorder features might be associated with nightmare experience, especially in nightmare disorder patients. The authors invited 219 healthy volunteers and 118 nightmare disorder patients to undergo tests of the Nightmare Experience Questionnaire (NEQ), the Parker Personality Measure (PERM), and the Plutchik-van Praag Depression Inventory. Compared to healthy volunteers, nightmare disorder patients scored significantly higher on annual nightmare frequency and NEQ Physical Effect, Negative Emotion, Meaning Interpretation, and Horrible Stimulation, and higher on PERM Paranoid, Schizotypal, Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic, Avoidant, and Dependent styles. Borderline, Schizotypal, and Passive-Aggressive styles in healthy volunteers and Dependent, Avoidant, Histrionic, and Paranoid in patients were significant predictors of some NEQ scales. Higher annual nightmare frequency, higher scale scores of nightmare experience and personality disorder styles, and more associations between the two were found in nightmare disorder patients, implying the need for personality-adjustment therapy for nightmare disorder.

Comorbidity of personality disorders in anxiety disorders: a meta-analysis of 30 years of research

BACKGROUND

A comprehensive meta-analysis to identify the proportions of comorbid personality disorders (PD) across the major subtypes of anxiety disorders (AD) has not previously been published.

METHODS

A literature search identified 125 empirical papers from the period 1980-2010 on patients with panic disorders, social phobia, generalised anxiety, obsessive-compulsive (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Several moderators were coded.

RESULTS

The rate of any comorbid PD was high across all ADs, ranging from .35 for PTSD to .52 for OCD. Cluster C PDs occurred more than twice as often as cluster A or B PDs. Within cluster C the avoidant PD occurred most frequently, followed by the obsessive-compulsive and the dependent PD. PTSD showed the most heterogeneous clinical picture and social phobia was highly comorbid with avoidant PD. A range of moderators were examined, but most were non-significant or of small effects, except an early age of onset, which in social phobia increased the risk of an avoidant PD considerably. Gender or duration of an AD was not related to variation in PD comorbidity.

LIMITATIONS

Blind rating of diagnoses was recorded from the papers as an indication of diagnostic validity. However, as too few studies reported it the validity of the comorbid estimates of PD was less strong.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings provided support to several of the proposed changes in the forthcoming DSM-5. Further comorbidity studies are needed in view of the substantial changes in how PDs will be diagnosed in the DSM-5.

Differential effects of depression and mania symptoms on social adjustment: prospective study in bipolar disorder

OBJECTIVES

Previous studies of social adjustment in bipolar disorder have been cross-sectional and small in sample size, have examined a limited number of roles, or were not controlled for baseline mood and other clinical, social, or treatment confounders. We aimed to prospectively explore the strength and stability of correlations between depression and mania-type symptoms and impairment in a broad range of social adjustment roles and domains.

METHODS

Multilevel modeling analysis of correlation coefficients between depression and mania-type symptoms with roles and domains of the modified social adjustment scale (overall, work, social/leisure, extended family, marital, parental social adjustment roles, performance, interpersonal behavior, friction, dependency, overactivity domains) was used. Interview assessments were made at eight-week intervals beginning at eight weeks and continuing through 72 weeks after baseline in 253 patients in a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

RESULTS

After controlling for baseline mood episodes, and other clinical, social, and treatment variables, depression symptoms showed strong and stable correlations over time with performance, overall social adjustment, and the work role; and a moderate but stable relationship with interpersonal behavior. The relationships of depression symptoms with the other roles were weak, non-significant, or not stable. For mania-type symptoms, only the correlation with interpersonal friction was moderately strong and reasonably stable over time. Mood episodes, substance use disorder, and borderline/antisocial personality disorder increased role impairment, while employment and marriage mildly decreased it.

CONCLUSIONS

Depression and mania-type symptoms have specific effects on social adjustment in bipolar I disorder. Depression symptoms are correlated strongly with performance and moderately with interpersonal behavior, while mania-type symptoms are correlated moderately with interpersonal friction.

Personality disorder types proposed for DSM-5

The Personality and Personality Disorders Work Group has proposed five specific personality disorder (PD) types for DSM-5, to be rated on a dimension of fit: antisocial/psychopathic, avoidant, borderline, obsessive-compulsive, and schizotypal. Each type is identified by core impairments in personality functioning, pathological personality traits, and common symptomatic behaviors. The other DSM-IV-TR PDs and the large residual category of personality disorder not otherwise specified (PDNOS) will be represented solely by the core impairments combined with specification by individuals' unique sets of personality traits. This proposal has three main features: (1) a reduction in the number of specified types from 10 to 5; (2) description of the types in a narrative format that combines typical deficits in self and interpersonal functioning and particular configurations of traits and behaviors; and (3) a dimensional rating of the degree to which a patient matches each type. An explanation of these modifications in approach to diagnosing PD types and their justifications--including excessive co-morbidity among DSM-IV-TR PDs, limited validity for some existing types, lack of specificity in the definition of PD, instability of current PD criteria sets, and arbitrary diagnostic thresholds--are the subjects of this review.

Maladaptive dependency traits in men

In this article, the authors intend to bring to the reader's attention the negative impact men's maladaptive dependency traits can have on their lives and methods by which these traits can be addressed in treatment. A review of the literature about dependence, dependency traits and dependent personality disorder is presented including the influence of early childhood experiences, gender differences, comorbidity with Axis I disorders, and assessment and treatment. Several clinical case examples highlighting the subtle expression of dependency traits in men are presented and discussed.

The Dependent Personality Questionnaire (DPQ): a screening instrument for dependent personality

BACKGROUND

There are no specific instruments for rating dependent personality, although this may be an important subject in clinical practice, where knowledge of dependent personality features may influence treatment.

AIMS

To develop a simple self-rating questionnaire for dependent personality features and compare the findings in two groups, one with and one without established dependent personality disorder.

METHOD

An 8-item Dependent Personality Questionnaire (DPQ) was developed and its acceptability and validity tested by administration to 30 psychiatric patients, half of whom had dependent personality disorder using clinical and research data, and the other 15 (pair-matched for age and sex) having other psychiatric diagnoses (including other personality disorders) but no dependent personality features.

RESULTS

The mean score on the dependent personality questionnaire (DPQ) was 13.7 in those with dependent personality disorder and 7.5 in those without such a disorder (p < .005). The DPQ was also a good predictor of the diagnosis of dependent personality disorder, with sensitivity, specificity, predicted positive, and predicted negative accuracies of 87%.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that the DPQ may be a suitable screening instrument for dependent personality characteristics.

Parental care and personality in melancholic and nonmelancholic depression

The authors hypothesized that low parental care is linked to nonmelancholic depression through depressive personality traits and personality dysfunction. This hypothesis was tested using path analysis with data provided from a sample of patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for major depression and distinguished on the basis of melancholic symptoms. The results supported their hypothesis. Lack of parental care was associated with self-critical traits, and higher levels of these traits were associated with personality dysfunction, which in turn was associated with nonmelancholic, but not melancholic, depression. Dependent traits were uniquely associated with the onset of an anxiety disorder before the first episode of depression. Researchers interested in the link between personality and depression are encouraged to focus their efforts on patients whose depressive episodes do not meet DSM-IV criteria for melancholia, and on the personality dimension of self-criticism rather than dependency.