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Robotically Delivered fMRI-Guided Personalized Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression

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Personality changes during antidepressant treatment.

Radovan Hruby¹, Gabriela Nosalova, Igor Ondrejka

¹Clinic of Psychiatry, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine, Martin, Slovak Republic. Radovan.Hruby@jfmed.uniba.sk

Psychiatria Danubina

|March 10, 2009

Summary

Antidepressant treatment led to significant personality changes in outpatients, specifically reducing harm avoidance (HA) and self-transcendence (ST), while increasing persistence (P). These findings highlight the impact of medication on core personality dimensions during depression recovery.

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Area of Science:

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Clinical Psychology
Pharmacopsychiatry

Background:

Depression is associated with specific personality traits, including high harm avoidance (HA), low persistence (P), and low self-transcendence (ST).
Understanding how antidepressant treatment affects these personality dimensions is crucial for comprehensive patient care and treatment optimization.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the longitudinal changes in Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R) personality dimensions in outpatients undergoing 6 months of antidepressant therapy.
To correlate these personality changes with the reduction in depressive symptom severity.

Main Methods:

A cohort of 30 outpatients with mild to moderate depressive or mixed anxiety-depressive disorders received antidepressant treatment.
The Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) assessed depression severity at baseline and at 1, 3, and 6 months.
The Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R) evaluated personality dimensions at the same time points. Statistical analysis used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

Main Results:

Significant reductions in harm avoidance (HA) scores were observed after 6 months of treatment (p<0.05).
A significant increase in persistence (P) was noted between the 1st and 6th month (p<0.05).
Significant decreases in self-transcendence (ST) scores occurred after 3 and 6 months (p<0.05).
A marked decrease in MADRS total scores was evident after 1, 3, and 6 months of treatment (p<0.001).

Conclusions:

Antidepressant treatment is associated with significant alterations in specific personality dimensions, namely harm avoidance (HA), persistence (P), and self-transcendence (ST).
These personality changes may contribute to the overall therapeutic effect of antidepressants in managing depressive disorders.