The Effect Of Personality Factors On The Symptoms Of Depressive Patients

Objective:(1) To describe clinic symptoms of depression from different genders, areas, age groups and degrees of education. (2) To investigate the correlations between personality factors and clinic symptoms in depression. (3) To explore the personality factors which affect degrees and clinic symptoms in depression.Method:290 patients were collected from divisions of clinic psychology in changsha and huaihua. These patients with depression were assessed with CES-D (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale), DEQ(Depressive Experiences Questionnaire), TAS-20(The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scales, SCCS(Consistency and Congruence Scale) and Structured Clinical Interview used in this study.Result:(1) There was gender difference in symptom of depressed affect (P<0.01). The score of depressed affect with male was higher than that in female (P<0.01). Statistical significances of the scores for depressed affect and somatic complaints were found among the students in different educational degrees (P<0.05). The scores of depressed affect and somatic complaints with elementary were higher than those in other educational degrees (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in different age groups and areas (P>0.05). (2)There were significant relationships between the total score of CES-D and 6 personality traits, such as self criticism, dependency and so on (The coefficients ranged from 0.14 to 0.33, P<0.05 or P<0.01). There were significant relationships between depressed affect and 7 personality traits, such as self criticism, dependency and so on (The coefficients ranged from 0.14 to 0.37, P <0.05 or P<0.01). There were significant relationships between the somatic complaints and 3 personality traits, such as self criticism, external thinking style and so on (The coefficients ranged from 0.17 to 0.20, P<0.01). There were significant relationships between the positive affect and 4 personality traits, such as efficacy and so on (The coefficients ranged from 0.12 to 0.21, P<0.05 or P<0.01). There were significant relationships between the interpersonal difficulties and 5 personality traits, such as self criticism, dependency and so on(The coefficients ranged from 0.12 to 0.31, P<0.05 or P<0.01). (3) From the regression statistics of the factors above, the personality traits were the effectively regressive ones to depression symptoms.Conclusion:(1) There are differences of depression clinic symptoms and depressed degree in different genders and educational degrees. (2) There are effective relationships between depression degrees, clinic symptoms and personality traits in depression, but there is more effective relationship between depression degrees, clinic symptoms and self criticism. (3) In the Personality factors, such as self criticism, dependency, difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, externally orientated style of thinking and so on, the depressed affect are effectively predicted by self criticism and the somatic complaints are certainly predicted by externally orientated style of thinking.