Stress, personality and depressive symptoms in a 6.5 year follow-up of subjects at familial risk for affective disorders and controls

Abstract

Background: The aim of the study was to identify risk factors in subjects at risk for depressive disorders and controls.

Methods: In a 6.5 year follow-up study we examined the effects of personality (neuroticism, frustration intolerance, rigidity, melancholic type), adverse life events and chronic difficulties on depressive symptoms in 89 high-risk subjects (HRS, siblings and children of patients suffering from an affective disorder), without any mental illness at wave 1 (T1), and 49 controls without any personal and family history of psychiatric disorder at T1. To this end, regression analysis and path analysis using a structural equation model (only for HRS) were performed.

Results: Risk factors for depressive symptoms at wave 2 (T2) in HRS comprised acute adverse life events, frustration intolerance (T1) and depressive symptoms (T1). Risk factors for depressive symptoms in controls included chronic difficulties, neuroticism and rigidity. HRS had less stressful life events and the same risk for chronic difficulties, but perceived adverse events as more stressful.

Limitation: The sample size of the control group is too small for identifying slight effects.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that the impact on the emergence of depressive symptoms of various risk factors is different in high-risk subjects and controls. High-risk subjects are more sensitive to the depressogenic effects of acute stress and thus avoid potential stressful changes in their life to a higher extent. On the other hand, the influence of persistent factors such as personality traits (neuroticism, rigidity) and chronic difficulties on subsequent depressive symptoms was less pronounced in HRS as compared to controls.