Biomaterial Database

Typus melancholicus is not the premorbid personality trait of unipolar (endogenous) depression. 1997

T Furukawa, and M Nakanishi, and T Hamanaka

Department of Psychiatry, Nagoya City University School of Medicine, Japan.

The present paper aims to examine whether Typus melancholicus is a distinguishing premorbid personality of unipolar (endogenous) depressive patients vis-à-vis psychiatric patients with different diagnoses and healthy control subjects. Two observer-rated scales for Typus melancholicus were administered to a consecutive series of psychiatric patients (n = 140) and a group of control subjects (n = 84). To the authors' own surprise, the only statistically significant finding was the low Typus melancholicus score among unipolar (endogenous) depressives in comparison with normal controls but not with other psychiatric patients. In addition, this finding held only for one of the two rating scales and among women only. According to the other rating scale for Typus melancholicus, there was no difference between unipolar (endogenous) depressives and the normal control or other psychiatric patients. These findings are discussed with particular emphasis on the methodological aspects of studies of premorbid personality of psychiatric disorders, a favored subject in the psychiatric science for decades.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D008875	Middle Aged	An adult aged 45 - 64 years.	Middle Age
D010554	Personality Disorders	A major deviation from normal patterns of behavior.	Avoidant Personality Disorder,Impulse-Ridden Personality,Inadequate Personality,Avoidant Personality Disorders,Impulse Ridden Personality,Personality Disorder,Personality Disorder, Avoidant,Personality Disorders, Avoidant,Personality, Impulse-Ridden,Personality, Inadequate
D010555	Personality Inventory	Check list, usually to be filled out by a person about himself, consisting of many statements about personal characteristics which the subject checks.	Edwards Personal Preference Schedule,Myers-Briggs Type Indicator,Indicator, Myers-Briggs Type,Inventories, Personality,Inventory, Personality,Myers Briggs Type Indicator,Personality Inventories
D011594	Psychometrics	Assessment of psychological variables by the application of mathematical procedures.	Psychometric
D012016	Reference Values	The range or frequency distribution of a measurement in a population (of organisms, organs or things) that has not been selected for the presence of disease or abnormality.	Normal Range,Normal Values,Reference Ranges,Normal Ranges,Normal Value,Range, Normal,Range, Reference,Ranges, Normal,Ranges, Reference,Reference Range,Reference Value,Value, Normal,Value, Reference,Values, Normal,Values, Reference
D003866	Depressive Disorder	An affective disorder manifested by either a dysphoric mood or loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities. The mood disturbance is prominent and relatively persistent.	Depression, Endogenous,Depression, Neurotic,Depression, Unipolar,Depressive Syndrome,Melancholia,Neurosis, Depressive,Unipolar Depression,Depressions, Endogenous,Depressions, Neurotic,Depressions, Unipolar,Depressive Disorders,Depressive Neuroses,Depressive Neurosis,Depressive Syndromes,Disorder, Depressive,Disorders, Depressive,Endogenous Depression,Endogenous Depressions,Melancholias,Neuroses, Depressive,Neurotic Depression,Neurotic Depressions,Syndrome, Depressive,Syndromes, Depressive,Unipolar Depressions
D003937	Diagnosis, Differential	Determination of which one of two or more diseases or conditions a patient is suffering from by systematically comparing and contrasting results of diagnostic measures.	Diagnoses, Differential,Differential Diagnoses,Differential Diagnosis
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man