Temperament and character as predictors of recurrence in remitted patients with major depression: a 4-year prospective follow-up study

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine whether the specific personality traits, Harm-Avoidance (HA) and Self-Directedness (SD) as measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), were predictive for subsequent depressive episodes in remitted patients with major depressive disorders (MDDs) over a 4-year follow-up. A total of 109 inpatients with MDD participated in this study. The subjects completed the TCI when they were assessed to be in remission. They were divided into high or low HA groups and high or low SD groups, as discriminated by the quartile value. A total of 69 patients were followed-up over a 4-year period or until recurrence. Both Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox׳s proportional hazards regression analysis indicated that patients with a low SD score had a significantly shorter time to recurrence from remission than patients with a high SD score even when some prognostic predictors were controlled for. In contrast, HA was not found to be a predictor of recurrence for future depressive episodes. A part of MDD patients with low scores in Self-Directedness are likely to develop depression over a subsequent period of time. Interventions that improve SD may help to delay recurrence of depression in MDD patients.

Keywords: Depression; Follow-up; Personality; Recurrence; TCI.