Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales as Indicators of SSRI Treatment Response in Youths with Major Depressive...

We examined whether the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS), personality traits grounded in neurobiologically defined primary emotions, are associated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor treatment response in youths with major depressive episodes.

This retrospective cohort study analyzed medical records from 142 youths (aged 12-20) at a university hospital. The primary outcome was the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale; secondary outcomes were the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). Outcomes were assessed at baseline, 3, and 6 months; demographic, developmental, clinical, and trauma covariates were recorded. Treatment response was defined as a CGI-I score ≤2 at 6 months.

Multivariable logistic regression revealed that higher baseline ANPS SADNESS (odds ratio [OR] = 0.92, p = 0.033) and CARE (OR = 0.93, p = 0.043) scores were significantly associated with a lower likelihood of achieving treatment response (CGI-I ≤2). Linear mixed models revealed that higher SADNESS (β = 0.007, p = 0.031) and CARE (β = 0.009, p = 0.005) were associated with a slower rate of improvement in the CGI-S. Additionally, SADNESS and CARE scores were associated with overall CDI and SCARED severity, respectively.

These findings suggest that ANPS SADNESS and CARE may inform personalized treatment approaches in youths with major depressive episodes; however, the retrospective single-center design limits causal inference and the Korean ANPS remains in early stages of psychometric validation in adolescents, underscoring the need for prospective multicenter validation.