[Bipolar patients in remission: personality disorders and changes in personality]

81 remitted patients with bipolar affective disorder were examined 20 months after the last discharge from hospital, for personality disorders and other personality deviations, which could be important for their way of coping. There was a high frequency of narcissistic, histrionic and borderline traits and, especially in the bipolar schizoaffective subgroup, of schizoid and related traits. Patients with few former episodes seemed to be "syntonic". Bipolar patients with a longer duration of illness showed an increasing resignative and subdepressive change of feelings and attitudes, whereas the schizoaffective patients in the long term showed a hypomanic alteration. The personality changes of bipolar patients occur during the "free intervals" and are mediated by social interaction, whereas the alteration of some bipolar schizo-affective seems to be caused directly by their illness.