Effect of affective temperament on illness characteristics of subjects with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder

Alessio Simonetti; Mario Luciano; Gaia Sampogna; Bianca Della Rocca; Emiliana Mancuso; Pasquale De Fazio; Marco Di Nicola; Giorgio Di Lorenzo; Maria Pepe; Fabio Sambataro; Maria Salvina Signorelli; Alexia Emilia Koukopoulos; Roberto Delle Chiaie; Andrea Fiorillo; Gabriele Sani

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2023.04.130

Effect of affective temperament on illness characteristics of subjects with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder

J Affect Disord. 2023 Aug 1:334:227-237. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.04.130. Epub 2023 May 6.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neuroscience, Section of Psychiatry, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy.
² Department of Psychiatry, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, 80138 Naples, Italy.
³ Department of Health Sciences, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy.
⁴ Department of Neuroscience, Section of Psychiatry, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy; Department of Neuroscience, Section of Psychiatry, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy.
⁵ Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy.
⁶ Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, 35121 Padua, Italy.
⁷ Psychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy.
⁸ Department of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University, 00161 Rome, Italy.
⁹ Department of Neuroscience, Section of Psychiatry, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy; Department of Neuroscience, Section of Psychiatry, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: gabriele.sani@unicatt.it.

PMID: 37156280
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.04.130

Abstract

Background: Affective temperaments represent the stable, biologically determined substrates of mood disorders. The relationship between affective temperaments and bipolar disorder (BD) or major depressive disorder (MDD) has been described. However, the strength of such relationship should be tested while considering other factors influencing the diagnosis of BD/MDD. Literature also lacks a comprehensive description of the interplay between affective temperament and characteristics of mood disorders. The aim of the present study is to address these issues.

Methods: This is a multicentric observational study including 7 Italian university sites. Five-hundred-fifty-five euthymic subjects with BD/MDD were enrolled and further divided in those with hyperthymic (Hyper, N = 143), cyclothymic (Cyclo, N = 133), irritable (Irr, N = 49), dysthymic (Dysth, N = 155), and anxious (Anx N = 76) temperaments. Linear, binary, ordinal and logistic regressions were performed to assess the association between affective temperaments and i) diagnosis of BD/MDD; ii) characteristics of illness severity and course.

Results: Hyper, Cyclo and Irr were more likely to be associated with BD, together with earlier age of onset and presence of a first-degree relative with BD. Anx and Dysth were more associated with MDD. Differences in association between affective temperaments and characteristics of BD/MDD were observed for hospital admissions, phase-related psychotic symptoms, length and type of depression, comorbidity and pharmacological intake.

Limitations: Small sample size, cross-sectional design, recall biases.

Conclusion: Specific affective temperaments were associated to certain characteristics of illness severity and course of BD or MDD. Evaluation of affective temperaments might help a deeper understanding of mood disorders.

Keywords: Bipolar disorder; Course; Diagnosis; Major affective disorder; Temperament.

Publication types

Observational Study

MeSH terms

Bipolar Disorder* / psychology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Cyclothymic Disorder / diagnosis
Cyclothymic Disorder / psychology
Depressive Disorder, Major* / psychology
Humans
Temperament