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Fragile States of Mind: Neuroticism, Vulnerability and the Long-Term Outcome of Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

P. G. Surtees  and
N. W. J. Wainwright
P. G. Surtees*
Affiliation:
MRC Biostatistics Unit
N. W. J. Wainwright
Affiliation:
MRC Biostatistics Unit
*
Dr P. G. Surtees, MRC Biostatistics Unit, Institute of Public Health, University Forvie Site, Robinson Way, Cambridge CB2 2SR
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Abstract

Background

This paper considers the extent to which vulnerability to the outcome of major affective disorder is conferred through personality deviance. Results are based upon a 12 year longitudinal follow-up study of 80 patients with a primary depressive disorder, originally selected from a consecutive series seeking care at a hospital in Scotland.

Methods

The study included detailed clinical course assessments in association with the formal application of diagnostic criteria. Assessments on recovery from the index episode included measures of self-confidence and of neuroticism. Experience of selected severe loss events over the study period was also determined.

Results

Limited self-confidence was strongly related, unlike neuroticism, to the subsequent first recurrence of affective disorder. Relationships between psychosocial, clinical and demographic factors and long-term outcome revealed psychosocial factors, in particular neuroticism and a lack of self-confidence, to have the greatest prognostic significance.

Conclusions

These results reveal the heightened risk over the long-term of a poor outcome for depressive disorder consequent upon measures of personality deviance and of exposure to adversity. While giving only limited support to narrowly defined psychosocial models of depression, they clarify the risk gradients involved and through this may provide a firmer basis than hitherto for relapse prevention.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 169 , Issue 3 , September 1996 , pp. 338 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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