The overlap of depressive personality disorder and dysthymia, reconsidered.

This paper reviews empirical literature examining the diagnostic overlap of depressive personality disorder and dysthymia. Although some articles have suggested that depressive personality disorder lacks distinctiveness from dysthymia and may be one type of affective disorder, a large proportion of the literature may, in fact, support its distinctiveness as a personality disorder. Additional research is needed to determine the features of the two disorders that best distinguish between them, so that depressive personality disorder can be further evaluated for its validity and usefulness in the diagnostic nomenclature.