Five-factor personality traits in patients with seasonal depression: treatment effects and comparisons with bipolar patients

doi:10.1016/S0165-0327(98)00206-7

Journal of Affective Disorders

Volume 55, Issue 1, September 1999, Pages 51-54

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0327(98)00206-7 Get rights and content

Abstract

Background: Increasingly, the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality is being used to assess personality characteristics of patients with Axis I disorders. Recent study indicates that patients with the seasonal subtype of major depression (SAD) may differ meaningfully from other depressed patients. In the present study, we further examined this finding, with attention to the stability of personality characteristics across treatment. Methods: We used the NEO-FFM to assess the personality characteristics of two samples of depressed outpatients: patients with SAD and patients with bipolar disorder. Assessment was repeated in the SAD patients after light therapy. Results: Consistent with previous research, we found elevated scores on the Openness domain in the SAD patients. SAD patients also scored significantly lower on Neuroticism and significantly higher on the Conscientiousness and Extroversion domains than patients with bipolar disorder. Scores on the Openness domain remained elevated after treatment of SAD; this occurred in the context of significant decreases in Neuroticism and increases in Extroversion scores. Limitations: These results were obtained in a relatively small-sample study. Although our sample of bipolar patients were taking mood stabilizers, it is unlikely that medication effects could explain our results. Conclusions: Our findings are consistent with those reported by Bagby et al. (Major depression and the five-factor model of personality. J. Pers. Disord. 1995;9:224–234) and suggests that Neuroticism and Extroversion are the FFM domains most responsive to treatment for depression. Our results also suggest that elevations on the Openness domain do not change with treatment and may be an enduring characteristic of patients with SAD.

Introduction

The Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality, an empirically derived system, has received increasing support as a valid model for measuring and describing normal personality (Costa and McCrae, 1989, Digman, 1990). According to the FFM, normal personality can be adequately described by five broad bipolar domains: (1) Neuroticism–Emotional Stability, (2) Extroversion–Introversion, (3) Openness to Experience–Closed to Experience, (4) Agreeableness–Disagreeableness, and (5) Conscientiousness–Non-Conscientiousness. The most popular measures of the FFM are the NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI: Costa and McCrae, 1989) and the shorter version, the NEO-Five Factor Model (NEO-FFM: Costa and McCrae, 1989).

Recent studies by Bagby et al. (1995)used the FFM to explore personality characteristics of patients with major depression and seasonal depressive disorder (Bagby et al., 1996). In the first of these studies, Bagby et al. (1995)measured the FFM characteristics of depressed patients before and after treatment and found that the domains of Neuroticism and Extroversion changed significantly with treatment, but Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness did not.

In a second study, Bagby et al. (1996)compared the FFM personality characteristics of patients with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) to patients with non-psychotic major depression. When the severity of depression was controlled statistically, the SAD group scored significantly higher on the FFM Openness domain. Furthermore, the SAD group's mean score on Openness was a full standard deviation above the normative group. High scores on the FFM Openness domain characterize individuals who are described as imaginative, emotionally sensitive, and willing to entertain unconventional ideas (Costa and McCrae, 1989). Bagby et al. (1996)suggested that elevations on two facets of Openness (Aesthetics and Feelings) may help explain the apparent emotional sensitivity to the environment (seasonal changes in light) characteristic of SAD. Elevations on the Aesthetics facet is characteristic of individuals who are highly sensitive to their internal and external environment, and elevations on the Feelings facet characterize individuals who experience moods more intensely than others. As suggested by Bagby et al. (1996), the sensitivity to environmental changes combined with a tendency toward amplification of moods may potentiate the emergence of SAD.

Although research suggests that the FFM domain of Openness is unrelated to state depression in patients without SAD (Schuller et al., 1993, Bagby et al., 1995), it is unclear whether elevated Openness domain scores are stable in recovered patients with SAD. The present study further examines the issue of personality trait differences between patients with SAD and non-SAD depression. The present study, compares FFM scores for SAD patients before and after treatment, and compares pretreatment scores of these subjects to FFM scores from a sample of depressed patients with bipolar disorder.

Section snippets

Methods

Patients giving informed written consent for entry into depression treatment protocols at the Bipolar Research Program outpatient clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital are evaluated by experienced research psychiatrists using the structured interview for DSM-III-R (SCID-P; Spitzer et al., 1980) with a supplemental module to evaluate seasonality of affective episodes. Subjects were included in this analysis if they were assigned a diagnosis of unipolar depression with seasonal pattern (SAD; n

Results

Table 1 presents demographic characteristics, depression severity, and the NEO-FFM domain scores (T-scores) for subjects in each group. In the ANCOVA analyses, the covariate (depression severity) was not a significant predictor of NEO-FFM domain scores (all P-values >0.31). Significant differences between groups were evident for four of five of the NEO-FFM domain scores. Patients with SAD scored significantly lower than the bipolar patients on Neuroticism (F=16.57; df=1,37; P<0.0001), and

Discussion

In a small sample of depressed outpatients we found evidence of significant difference in NEO-FFM personality dimensions among patients with SAD relative to bipolar depression. Our findings of higher scores on the domain of Openness to Experience replicated the recent report by Bagby et al. (1996)comparing SAD patients to a sample of nonseasonal unipolar depressives. In addition, our sample of SAD patients scored significantly lower on Neuroticism, and significantly higher on the Extroversion

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Brief reportFive-factor personality traits in patients with seasonal depression: treatment effects and comparisons with bipolar patients

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Methods

Results

Discussion

J. Affect. Disord.

Comp. Psychiatry

Major depression and the five-factor model of personality

J. Pers. Disord.

Brief report
Five-factor personality traits in patients with seasonal depression: treatment effects and comparisons with bipolar patients