The Swedish Depressive Personality Disorder Inventory: psychometrics and clinical correlates from a DSM-IV and proposed DSM-5 perspective

Abstract

Background: Depressive personality is commonly seen in clinical practice, and today only one exclusive self-report instrument-the Depressive Personality Disorder Inventory (DPDI)-is available for its assessment based on the DSM-IV description of the construct.

Aims: The purpose of this research was to evaluate a Swedish version of this measure (DPDI-Swe) in terms of its reliability, internal structure, and convergent validity using related variables from the DSM-IV criteria for depressive personality disorder (DPD) and the proposed DPD trait set for DSM-5.

Methods: A non-clinical sample of 255 adults in southern Sweden completed a self-report package, which, in addition to DPD, included the assessment of self-esteem, optimism, hope, rumination, worry, depression, and anxiety. Quality of life was also measured.

Results: Results indicated that the DPDI-Swe was internally consistent (α = 0.96). Exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotation yielded three components, together accounting for 48.21% of the variance in DPDI-Swe scores. There were strong positive associations between the DPDI-Swe and measures of depression, anxiety, rumination, and worry, and strong negative associations between the DPDI-Swe and measures of self-esteem, optimism, hope, and quality of life. These significant relationships remained, albeit slightly diminished, after statistically controlling for current depressed mood.

Conclusions and clinical implications: The DPDI-Swe appears to be a reliable and valid measure of DPD, and it is available for clinical and research use.