Exploratory study toward development of the French version of the questionnaire on personality traits (QPT/VKP-4) in an elderly population in comparison to young adults.

This research is an exploratory study toward development of the French version of the Questionnaire on Personality Traits (QPT/VKP-4). The goal was to assess its association with the Big Five Inventory (BIG-5) and to explore the personality characteristics of the elderly compared to young adults. The 241 participants included 83 elderly people and 158 young adults. Borderline and anxious personality disorders were less frequent in elderly women than in young women, and depressive personality disorder was less frequent in elderly men. Dimension scores were higher for Conscientiousness in the elderly, Agreeableness in elderly women, and Extraversion in elderly men. Statistically significant correlations were found between personality dimension scores using the VKP-4 and the BIG-5.

[Treatment of depressive disorder and comorbid personality pathology: combined therapy versus pharmacotherapy]. / Behandeling van de depressieve stoornis en comorbide persoonlijkheidspathologie: gecombineerde therapie versus farmacotherapie.

BACKGROUND: Comorbidity of depressive and personality disorder occurs frequently, in literature percentages of around 50 to nearly 80 percent are found. Also in the Mentrum depression study on which this article is grounded, high percentages of around 66% were found. There is no equivocal treatment method of choice in literature, and opinions differ as to whether personality pathology has an adverse influence on the efficacy of the treatment for depression. AIM: To compare the results of pharmacotherapy and combined therapy in the treatment of depressive disorders in patients with and without comorbid personality disorder. METHOD: A 6 month randomised clinical trial of antidepressants and combined therapy in ambulatory patients with major depressive disorder and a baseline score of at least 14 points on the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Pharmacotherapy follows three subsequent steps in case of intolerance/inefficacy: fluoxetine, amitriptyline and moclobemide. In addition combination therapy includes 16 short-term sessions of psychodynamic supportive psychotherapy. Possible personality pathology is assessed by means of the 'Vragenlijst Kenmerken Persoonlijkheid' (a self report version of the International Personality Disorder Examination). Analyses of (co) variance and chi-squared tests were applied to assess the differences in both treatment conditions in the group with and without personality pathology. RESULTS: Combined therapy was significantly more effective than pharmacotherapy for depressed patients with personality disorders. For depressed patients without personality disorders, combined therapy was not more effective than pharmacotherapy alone. CONCLUSION: The combination of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy seems to be the treatment of choice for depressed patients with comorbid personality pathology.

Personality disorder traits in patients with epilepsy.

OBJECTIVE AND METHODS: The Questionnaire on Personality Traits (VKP: Vragenlijst voor Kenmerken van de Persoonlijkheid) was used to investigate personality disorder (PD) traits in 203 patients with epilepsy and a control group of 332 subjects from the general population. Furthermore, the association of PD traits with epilepsy-related variables was studied, as well as the association between PD traits and level of psychopathology. RESULTS: The results showed that, compared with the control group, patients with epilepsy had higher dimensional VKP scores for several Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) PDs. Associations were found between PD traits and age at onset of epilepsy, duration of epilepsy, seizure frequency and number of anti-epileptic drugs. Anxiety and depression were not associated with PD traits. CONCLUSION: It is likely that suffering from epileptic seizures negatively influences personality development and can result in the development of maladaptive PD traits. The results also support the idea that PD traits are not (completely) covered by axis I psychopathology and therefore should be separately investigated.

Major depression, double depression and personality disorders.

Personality disorders are much more common among depressive patients than among normal people. Until now, little research has been conducted into the prevalence of personality disorders among patients with both major depression and dysthymia (double depression). The subject of this study is whether depressive patients with dysthymia have more personality disorders than those with no dysthymia. The Vragenlijst voor Kenmerken van de Persoonlijkheid (a Dutch self-report based on the International Personality Disorder Examination) was completed for 211 outpatients with major depression. Approximately 60% of the patients suffer from one or more personality disorders. Depressive patients with dysthymia differ little from the patients without dysthymia, but patients with dysthymia have more cluster A disorders and are more avoidant. Depressive patients without dysthymia do not differ from the patients with dysthymia in terms of symptoms. Depressive patients with personality disorders have significantly more symptoms than the patients without these disorders. There is no interaction between dysthymia and personality disorder.

Personality disorders in pulmonary patients.

A sample of 59 patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) was compared to matched samples of psychiatric patients and normal individuals with respect to personality disorders (PDs) assessed by a self-report measure (VKP) (Duijsens, Eurelings-Bontekoe, Diekstra & Ouwersloot, 1993a, b). The number of PDs differed significantly between pulmonary and psychiatric patients, while there was no significant difference between pulmonary patients and normal individuals. Comparison of the number of diagnosis criteria yielded significant contrasts between psychiatric patients versus the normal individuals and the pulmonary patients. Pulmonary patients and normal individuals showed significantly lower mean number of criteria met than matched psychiatric patients for nearly all of the diagnoses. It is concluded that PDs are no more prevalent in asthma and COPD patients than in the general population.

Temperament, character, and personality disorders.

This study compares two self-report instruments--the Dutch version of Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and the Questionnaire on Personality Traits (VKP)--in a Dutch sample of 148 people in a healthy population. The aims of this study are to create a norm group for the Dutch TCI, to investigate the psychometric properties of the TCI, and to examine the relationship between temperament, character (as measured by the TCI), and personality disorders (as measured by the VKP). The Dutch TCI has a good internal consistency. Some scales do intercorrelate. Seven factors can be identified with principal components analysis. T-tests show differences between the mean score of this Dutch population and Cloninger's community sample. According to the results of correlations and multiple regression of the TCI and the VKP, the self-directedness scale can predict the presence or absence of a personality disorder. Other scales might predict the type of personality disorder. It is concluded that the TCI can be a useful aid in the assessment of personality disorders.