The tridimensional personality questionnaire (TPQ) and depression

Abstract

The relationships between the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) and depression were examined in a sample of 53 major depressive patients and 33 healthy controls. Depressed patients exhibit higher harm avoidance scores as well as lower novelty seeking sub-scale exploratory excitability (NS1) scores as compared to healthy controls. However, the other dimensions and their sub-scales do not differ between depressive patients and controls. In the depressive group, the harm avoidance dimension is related to the severity of depression as assessed by the Hamilton scale. This study confirms the state dependence of the harm avoidance dimension and suggests a relationship between the novelty seeking sub-scale NS1 and depression.