Geriatric depression and DSM-III-R personality disorder criteria

The relationship between personality traits and late-life depression is not well established. The Personality Disorder Examination (PDE), a recently developed structured interview for diagnosing DSM-III-R* personality disorders, has provided a methodological advance for studies in this area. The PDE was administered to 36 cognitively intact elderly individuals. The sample consisted of 21 patients who had recovered from depression and 15 normal volunteers. Two of the patients met DSM-III-R criteria for personality disorder according to the PDE. The patient group received higher scores on PDE items related to each personality diagnosis (P less than .01) except antisocial personality disorder. These preliminary data suggest that elderly patients with a history of major depression have more lifetime personality dysfunction than normal elderly individuals, although no specific pattern could be identified.