The Relationship between Personality and the Symptoms of Depressive Illness
ADRIANO VAZ SERRA M.D.1 and
JOHN POLLITT M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych.2
1 Professor of Psychiatry, University of Coimbra, Serviços de Psiquiatria, Bloco Hospitalar de Celas, Coimbra, Portugal
2 Physician in Charge, Department of Psychiatry, St. Thomas' Hospital, London, SE1 7EH
The Maudsley Personality Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory, with additional items to assess depressive functional shift features and outlook on life values, were administered to 100 patients diagnosed as suffering from depressive illness. Patients' scores for questions eliciting information about symptoms assumed to be dependent on personality correlated at substantial and significant levels with N scale scores of the Maudsley Personality Inventory. Similar levels of correlation were found for the added items for assessing life values. Items believed to assess changes in functions independent of personality, such as the features of the Depressive Functional Shift, showed no correlation with either N or E scales of the Maudsley Personality Inventory, while demonstrating a substantial level of correlation with the depression scale. It is concluded that whereas changes in innate biological functions independent of environment are direct indications of the depressive illness process, psychological symptoms of the illness may reflect changes in personality dependent on upbringing, education and cultural background, thereby producing greater variation in this group of psychological symptoms.
Submitted on October 3, 1974
