The article that has been cited is a research study carried out by Roger, T. Mulder. The title is, “Personality Pathology and Treatment Outcome in Major Depression: A Review”. It is linked to the field of psychology and deals with the subject of depression in individuals. The study concerns personality pathology, and the results of the treatment given to patients who are under depression, and how personalities may have adverse effects on the consequences of the cure.
Just like each person differs from one another, similarly, ailments and cures also vary accordingly. Each individual possesses certain characteristics, thus the body deficiencies or disorders pertaining to each person show a discrepancy. General overall health, lifestyle, all matter and affect the conditions inside each individual
This study is a review of many of the previous studies that have been undertaken to find out about how medicines or pathology help depression patients, and how each patient’s conditions or past history may affect the outcomes of the medicines or treatment applied to them. This is called personality pathology, and many studies have shown a correlation between the personalities of patients, and their effects on the treatment given.
The major aim behind carrying out this study was to have an insight into what past studies regarding treatment outcome and personalities have shown, and their link to patients with depression has been revealed. All patients suffering from depression are certain to have varying outcomes in their treatment, because of the individual characteristics they hold. The purpose of the study is to provide information related to the effects of personalities of depression patients on treatment effects that may lead to further helpful clinical advice.
Standardized instruments have been employed to diagnose personality pathology, which has been classified into dimensional, and categorical. The dimensional instruments are those that are favored and supported by researchers and psychologists and the categorical instruments are favored by psychiatrists and clinicians. There are some aspects pertaining to the dimensional instruments used, which are, neuroticism, harm avoidance, novelty-seeking, and reward dependence.
The study informs us that a new scale to measure personality in relation to the outcome has been used for the past ten to fifteen years, which is known as the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire. Novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence are measured in this questionnaire. Results have shown that individuals with greater scores of high novelty-seeking tend to have exploratory behavior. Those with high scores for harm avoidance possess individual differences more in the behavioral inhibition system, and those that score high in reward dependence possess individual differences in the behavioral maintenance system. The methods employed to carry out this study in the year 2002 have been given; firstly the databases that were used have been named, PsychINFO and MEDLINE. Citations up till November 2000 had been taken. To look for articles related to personality, and their cross-references, various terms were entered as qualifiers on the World Wide Web.
Empirical studies associated with patients suffering from depression and undergoing some sort of treatment were searched for. On attaining such articles, they were divided into groups and categories according to the models that were being employed to them, for personality pathology assessment. The results show that most patients with high scores for neuroticism showed worse treatment responses, for both in and outpatients. Long-term outcomes were seen, and five studies selected were related to patients undergoing treatments, whereas the rest were naturalistic studies.
Mulder states that Strakowski et.al were the first to use the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire to check for the outcomes of patients, and results showed that manic patients experienced slow recovery. After further studies ever since a conclusion was reached that the types of medicines given to patients with depression depend on the personalities of those individuals. The effects of treatment were dependent on the nature of the patients.
The matter of concern here is that the methods used to measure the personality pathology varied, and these produced varying results at the end. Four major problems have been listed while checking for the relationship between personality pathology and cure outcome in depression patients. They are, firstly, the validity of the measures, secondly, their relationship to mood, thirdly, the traits of depressed patients with and without personality disorders, and lastly, the lack of unison of personality pathology on treatment.
The author has stated that the methods that have been employed previously by researchers may be incorrect in determining the personality pathology relation to outcomes of treatment. They may have used the wrong instruments for measurements of personality disorders. Mulder has suggested the use of multivariable analytic techniques for future studies of this subject. The results attained for the studies related to depressed patients may also depend on the personality disorders they possess if any.
The end result reached was that if a depressed patient has a personality disorder, the outcome does not become worse if treatment is given, on the condition that standard treatment for the mood disorder is also being given.
I feel this is good research, as it is based on a collection of many other researchers’ efforts, and has scope for further studies to see if depressed patients show a difference in the outcome of treatment provided to them. The experience reading the study was indeed a worthwhile one.
References
Mulder, R. Personality Pathology and Treatment Outcome in Major Depression: A Review. The American Journal of Psychiatry 159 (3): 359. (2002). Web.