“Psychogenic needs” in patients with affective disorders

Abstract

To investigate the occurrence of different psychogenic needs or groups of needs, 118 consecutive out-patients with previous depressive disorders were asked to complete the Cesarec and Marke Personality Inventory; 103 completed it. Strict diagnostic criteria were used in subgrouping the series which thus consisted of unipolar depressive psychosis (UP), 26 patients; bipolar depressive psychosis (BP), 16; unclassified depression (NUD), 8; and reactio neurotico-depressive (RND), 15. BP distinguished themselves from the other groups by a tendency to have a reduced need of approval, dependency, guilt feelings and ego conflicts and a stronger wish to dominate and lead. These results are in line with earlier findings. The NUD group was small but tended to have extreme scores, i.e. a particularly weak need to dominate and to be in the centre but also to be cared for.

Personality Traits in Former Depressed Patients and in Healthy Subjects without Past History of Depression

“…In line with results from earlier studies by other authors [von Zerssen, 1977[von Zerssen, , 1982 as well as from our group [Strandman, 1978;Perris and Strandman 1978] we assume that the main personality characteristics of the depression-prone individual comprise anxi ety, psychasthcnia (covering such traits as orderly, conscientious, bound to routine, etc. ), and a proneness to suspicion and guilt.…”

“…Since Kraepelin [1920] included mood swings at a personality level within his con cept of manic-depressive insanity, and Abra ham [1948] described the obsessional per sonality characteristics of depressed individ uals, much effort has been made to attempt to define the personality structure of the de pression-prone individual [for recent reviews see Chodoff, 1972;von Zerssen, 1976von Zerssen, , 1982Matussek and Fed, 1983;Hirschfeld et al, 1983], For several years our group has also paid particular attention to the issue of per sonality characteristics in depressed patients [Perris, 1966[Perris, , 1971Strandman, 1978;Perris and Strandman, 1978], More recently, our interest has been focused on more stable per sonality traits, and in particular on aspects of aggression, and on factors which might con tribute to the building up of such characteris tics [Perris ct al., 1979a[Perris ct al., , b, 1983a. The interest in studies of personality and depres sion lies in the attempt to identify factors which might contribute to the development of a depressive disorder and which might be relevant to an effective treatment of the de pressed patients.…”

“…In pre vious articles [Perris, 1981; we presented a multifactorial hypothesis of the etiology of depression focused upon individ ual vulnerability, and taking into account biological, psychological, and social factors as possible modifiers of such vulnerability. In this mode, personality characteristics con ceived as basic traits as well as 'psychogenic needs' [Strandman, 1978;Perris and Strand man, 1978] play an important role.…”

Change and stability of needs from middle adolescence to young adulthood in Swedish females

“…The CMPS has been used in several Swedish and Scandinavian studies, for instance, in an investigation on patients with affective disorders (Bech, Shapiro, Sihm, Nielsen, Sorensen and Rafaelsen, 1980;Bech, Jorgensen, Jeppesen, Loldrup Poulsen and Vangaard, 1986;Strandman, 1978), fertile women (Jacobsson, Perris and Espvall, 1979, and in elderly persons (Nilsson and Persson, 1984;Persson, 1980). and practically; difficulties in managing solely.…”

Leisure activities of depressive patients

“…The scheme is based on 165 "yes" or "no" items. More details about this inventory are given by Strandman (15). In earlier studies the scheme has been shown to give valuable, reliable and valid information (16).…”