Identity and temperament characteristics in the categorization of depressive pole

Abstract

Objective: The present study aims to investigate the identity problems and affective temperaments in dysthymia and major depression. Methods: Each participant was assessed clinically by SCID-I and SCID-II interviews, Hamilton Depression Scale, DSM-V criteria for personality functioning, and a series of self-report inventories for affective temperament (TEMPS-A) and identity confusion (IFAIC). Results: In this study, we didn’t found significant difference among IFAIC scores of the depressive groups. However, there is big difference between the early and late onset dysthymia. Depressive-anxious temperament score is lowest in episodic major depression and highest in early onset dysthymia. Depressive-anxious temperament score of late onset dysthymia is lower than the scores of early onset dysthymia and chronic major depression. Similar result is also eligible for irritable temperament. According to these results, temperament profiles of early onset dysthymia are much more similar to chronic major depressive patients other than late onset dysthymia. Conclusion: Chronic major depression and dysthymia show similar temperament and identity characteristics. However, there are significant differences in identity development and temperaments other than hyperthymic temperament between early onset dysthymia and late onset dysthymia. Because of that, division of chronic depression in to two subcategories will be helpful.