Features of Temperament and Character in Families with Recurrent Depressive and Bipolar Affective Disorders

Abstract

The research is devoted to the study of temperament and character characteristics in families with mood disorders (recurrent depressive disorder (RВВ) and bipolar affective disorder (BD)). Many temperament and character traits tend to aggregate in families and influence the risk of RDD and BD. At the same time, no studies have been conducted in the Russian population with an assessment of temperament and character traits depending on the presence of mood disorders in families. The hypothesis of the study: patients with mood disorders and their relatives have specific features of temperament and character. 36 probands with RDD and BD and 68 of their relatives were examined, as well as 23 probands without mood disorders and 53 of their relatives. A Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-125) was used to assess personality traits. The results of the study showed that probands with mood disorders, in comparison with their relatives, had significantly higher scores on such TCI-125 dimensions as novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence. However, the main contribution to the identified differences was made by relatives without mood disorders. Probands with mood disorders had a higher score on the dimension of harm avoidance compared to healthy probands. In addition, a higher score on the novelty seeking dimension was associated with the absence of relatives with mood disorders when comparing healthy relatives of probands with mood disorders and healthy relatives of probands without mood disorders. It is concluded that there are specific temperament traits in families with mood disorders that can be considered as candidates for the endophenotypes of RDD and BD.