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Published on: November 21, 2013
Psychodynamic personality profile in first-episode severe mental disorders
J Heikkilä1, H Karlsson, T Taiminen
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. jyrki.heikkila@turku.fi
Objective:
The aim of this study was to relate measures of psychoanalytically derived personality traits to descriptive diagnosis and psychopathology in severe mental disorders.
Method:
Sixty-one consecutive first-episode patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe major depression were interviewed. Personality traits were assessed with the Karolinska Psychodynamic Profile (KAPP) and compared with the DSM-IV diagnosis and symptom clusters derived from the BPRS.
Results:
There were no marked differences in personality traits between the three diagnostic groups, between schizophrenia and affective disorders or between psychotic and non-psychotic illness. However, personality traits had significant associations with symptoms, especially with the emotional retardation cluster.
Conclusion:
Our findings do not support the hypothesis that severe mental disorders would differ from each other in terms of long-standing psychodynamic personality profiles. Certain dysfunctional personality traits may predict especially negative emotional symptoms and possibly also predispose a person to them.
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