Affective temperaments and antidepressant response in the clinical management of mood disorders.

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of a relationship between affective temperament and antidepressant treatment response in mood disorder patients.

METHODS

The lifetime history of antidepressant response of 90 bipolar disorder patients and 88 major depressive disorder patients were retrospectively evaluated and then assigned to one of four subgroups: complete response (CR), partial response (PR), no response (NR), and antidepressant associated mania response (AAMR). Using TEMPS-Rio de Janeiro - the brief Brazilian version of TEMPS-A - we compared affective temperament subscale scores across these groups.

RESULTS

We observed a statistically significant relationship between depressive and anxious affective temperaments and no antidepressant response. In bipolar disorder patients, cyclothymic temperament (p<0.01) and hyperthymic temperament (p<0.05) were associated with antidepressant-associated mania. Hyperthymic temperament was associated with complete antidepressant responses in major depressive disorder patients.

LIMITATIONS: The evaluation of antidepressant response was retrospective.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data are consistent with the theory that affective temperament traits are factors that can influence the antidepressant response and the recovery from depressive episodes, but more longitudinal studies are needed to confirm this theory and our findings.