The relation between affective temperament and resilience in depression: a controlled study

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of a relationship between affective temperament and resilience in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) diagnosis, and to examine whether this relationship, if present, differs from healthy individuals.

In line with this purpose, 100 cases with major depressive disorder diagnosis who were in their remission period were evaluated consecutively in their regular outpatient control interviews. The control group consisted of 100 healthy individuals without any history of psychiatric admission and treatment, matched with the depressive group in terms of age and sex. Diagnostic interviews were conducted with SCID-I, affective temperament and resilience were evaluated with TEMPS-A (Evaluation of Temperament Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego-Auto questionnaire) and The Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA)-Turkish version, respectively.

We observed a strong relationship between resilience and hyperthymic temperament both in depressive and healthy individuals. There was an inverse relation between psychological resilience and irritable and anxious temperament in both groups. A negative correlation was observed between irritable temperament and family cohesion in depressive disorder group, while in healthy individuals a strong correlation was observed between family cohesion and depressive and anxious temperament, and a weak correlation between family cohesion and hyperthymic temperament.

The measurements of temperament and resilience were estimated depending on the patient's statement.

There is a strong relationship between hyperthymic temperament and psychological resilience in MDD. The relationship between the type of affective temperament and the family cohesion sub-dimension of psychological resilience differs from that of healthy individuals.