The association of major depressive episode and personality traits in patients with fibromyalgia

INTRODUCTION: Personality traits have been associated with primary depression. However, it is not known whether this association takes place in the case of depression comorbid with fibromyalgia. OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated the association between a current major depressive episode and temperament traits (e.g., harm avoidance). METHOD: A sample of 69 adult female patients with fibromyalgia was assessed with the Temperament and Character Inventory. Psychiatric diagnoses were assessed with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview severity of depressive symptomatology with the Beck Depression Inventory, and anxiety symptomatology with the IDATE-state and pain intensity with a visual analog scale. RESULTS: A current major depressive episode was diagnosed in 28 (40.5 percent) of the patients. They presented higher levels of harm avoidance and lower levels of cooperativeness and self-directedness compared with non-depressed patients, which is consistent with the Temperament and Character Inventory profile of subjects with primary depression. However, in contrast to previous results in primary depression, no association between a major depressive episode and self-transcendence was found. CONCLUSIONS: The results highlight specific features of depression in fibromyalgia subjects and may prove important for enhancing the diagnosis and prognosis of depression in fibromyalgia patients.

Estudo dos traços de personalidade de pacientes com fibromialgia através do Inventário de Temperamento e Caráter de Cloninger / Personality traits in fibromyalgia patients using the Temperament and Character Inventory of Cloninger

INTRODUÇÃO: Fibromialgia tem sido considerada uma síndrome, na qual a etiologia e etiopatogenia ainda permanecem pouco esclarecidas. Transtornos depressivos e ansiosos são altamente prevalentes nesses pacientes, entretanto, em relação aos aspectos da personalidade, os dados de literatura são pouco homogêneos. Poucos estudos têm investigado a relevância de fatores emocionais, incluindo aspectos da personalidade, como preditores para intensidade da dor em fibromialgia. Cloninger desenvolveu uma teoria da personalidade integrando os aspectos biológicos e psicológicos, estruturando o Inventário de Temperamento e Caráter para investigar quatro traços de temperamento (esquiva ao dano, busca de novidades, dependência de gratificação e persistência) e três traços de caráter (auto-direcionamento, cooperatividade e auto-transcendência). Estudos sugerem que o Inventário de Temperamento e Caráter possui valor preditivo, assim alterações nos traços esquiva ao dano e autodirecionamento poderiam predizer vulnerabilidade para alguns transtornos. Este estudo teve como objetivo principal investigar o valor preditivo do fator esquiva ao dano para intensidade da dor em pacientes com fibromialgia após o período de um ano a um ano e seis meses (T2) da primeira avaliação (T1). Os objetivos secundários deste estudo foram: comparar os escores de esquiva ao dano e os demais traços do Inventário de Temperamento e Caráter entre mulheres com fibromialgia e um grupo controle de mulheres sem a doença. Considerando apenas o grupo de pacientes com fibromialgia, o estudo investigou diferenças nos traços do Inventário de Temperamento e Caráter entre as pacientes com depressão maior atual e pacientes sem depressão maior atual. MÉTODOS: O estudo foi desenvolvido entre abril de 2006 e setembro de 2009 em duas etapas: transversal e prospectiva. Na etapa transversal, 78 mulheres foram comparadas no fator esquiva ao dano com 78 mulheres do grupo controle. Os dois grupos foram avaliados em...

INTRODUCTION: Fibromyalgia has been considered as a syndrome that the etiology and etiopathogeny remains unclear. Depressive and anxiety disorders are very common in fibromyalgia patients. However data about the relationship between personality characteristics and fibromyalgia are less homogeneous. Few studies have investigated the relevance of emotional factors including personality aspect as predictors of pain intensity in fibromyalgia. Cloninger developed a theory unifying psychological and biological aspects of personality, and created the Temperament and Character Inventory, to evaluate four temperament traits (harm avoidance, novelty seeking, reward dependence and persistence) and tree character traits (self-directedness, cooperativeness and self-transcendence). Studies have suggested that the Temperament and Character Inventory presents a predictive value, thus alterations on harm avoidance and self-directedness could predict vulnerability to some disorders. The main objective of this study was to investigate the predictive value of harm avoidance for pain intensity in fibromyalgia patients after the period of one year to one year and six months (T2) from the first evaluation (T1). The secondary objectives were: to compare the harm avoidance temperament trait and the others traits of the Temperament and Character Inventory in fibromyalgia women with a control group without this diagnose. In the fibromyalgia group, the objectives were to compare the Temperament and Character Inventory traits between fibromyalgia patients with major depressive episode and fibromyalgia patients without this diagnose. METHOD: The study was developed between from June 2006 to September 2008 in two parts: transversal and prospective. In the transversal part 78 women with fibromyalgia were compared with 78 women without fibromyalgia. The two groups were evaluated in relation to socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, depressive (Beck Depression Inventory and HAM-D)...