Stability of personality traits over a five-year period in Swedish patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder and non-psychotic individuals: a study using the Swedish universities scales of personality

Abstract

Background: Personality is considered as an important aspect in persons with psychotic disorders. Several studies have investigated personality in schizophrenia. However, no study has investigated stability of personality traits exceeding three years in patients with schizophrenia. This study aims to investigate the stability of personality traits over a five-year period among patients with schizophrenia and non-psychotic individuals and to evaluate case-control differences. Methods: Patients with psychotic disorders (n = 36) and non-psychotic individuals (n = 76) completed Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP) at two occasions five years apart. SSP scores were analysed for effect of time and case-control differences by multiple analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and within-subjects correlation. Results: MANCOVA within-subjects analysis did not show any effect of time. Thus, SSP mean scale scores did not significantly vary during the five-year interval. Within subject correlations (Spearman) ranged 0.30-0.68 and 0.54-0.75 for the different SSP scales in patients and controls, respectively. Patients scored higher than controls in SSP scales Somatic Trait Anxiety, Psychic Trait Anxiety, Stress Susceptibility, Lack of Assertiveness, Detachment, Embitterment, and Mistrust. Conclusion: The stability of the SSP personality trait was reasonably high among patients with psychotic disorder, although lower than among non-psychotic individuals, which is in accordance with previous research.

Validity and utility of Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP): I. Psychosis superspectrum

“…These parallel each other but reflect different timescales. Signs and symptoms reflect the current state, problems that may be acute and transient; whereas maladaptive traits capture typical levels of these problems over many years and are fairly chronic 33,34 . For instance, disorganization symptoms indicate current disturbance in organization or expression of thought and odd behavior, whereas trait peculiarity describes very similar problems but assessed over the lifetime.…”

Swedish Universities Scales of Personality: Relation to Other Personality Instruments

“…However, we have previously compared patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, siblings to these patients and unrelated control subjects, and did not detect any significant SSP personality scale differences between siblings and controls. 27 Another limitation of the study is that personality data was collected from self-report instruments and that no observer ratings were provided. It should however be noted, that self-reports are by far the most common method for personality assessments and independent ratings from significant others have shown substantial concordances with self-reports.…”

“…Four of the scales in SSP characterize sensation seeking, impulse control, conformity and relation to the social environment. The SSP scales are relatively stable over periods up to five years [ 27 ].…”

“…The SSP scales are relatively stable over periods up to five years. 27 At the investigation participants were asked to complete an extended version of the KSP (KSP-196), used during the construction of SSP and other personality instruments. 25,28 includes all of the 91 items contained in the SSP.…”

Correction to: Stability of personality traits over a five-year period in Swedish patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder and nonpsychotic individuals: a study using the Swedish universities scales of personality

“…After publication of the original article [1], it was brought to our attention that some of the numbers in Table 3 were incorrectly reported due to data entry errors. The corrected Table 3 can be found below - modified values are marked with bold.…”