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Do antidepressants change personality?--a five-year observational study.

Pekka Jylhä¹, Mikko Ketokivi, Outi Mantere

¹Department of Mental Health and Substance Use, National Institute of Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.

Journal of Affective Disorders

|July 31, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Antidepressants did not significantly alter personality traits like neuroticism or extraversion in patients with major depressive disorder. Instead, changes in these personality dimensions were linked to improvements in depressive and anxiety symptoms.

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Area of Science:

Psychiatry
Clinical Psychology
Pharmacology

Background:

The influence of antidepressants on personality is a significant clinical and societal concern.
Widespread antidepressant use necessitates understanding their impact on personality traits.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the covariation between personality scores (neuroticism, extraversion) and antidepressant pharmacotherapy in patients with major depressive disorder.
To determine if this covariation persists after accounting for changes in depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Main Methods:

A five-year prospective longitudinal study of 237 major depressive disorder patients.
Analysis of changes in neuroticism and extraversion scores, antidepressant pharmacotherapy, and depressive/anxiety symptoms using autoregressive path models and latent change models.

Main Results:

A significant association was found between personality changes and depressive symptoms; reduced depression correlated with increased extraversion and decreased neuroticism.
No significant covariation was observed between personality score changes and antidepressant pharmacotherapy.
Changes in neuroticism were also associated with changes in anxiety symptoms.

Conclusions:

Antidepressant pharmacotherapy did not show significant covariation with neuroticism or extraversion scores.
Changes in personality dimensions were associated with changes in depressive and anxiety symptoms, suggesting the disorders themselves may influence personality.
Any potential effect of antidepressants on these personality dimensions is likely smaller than the impact of the disorders.