Category: Depression

Around 13% of the population has depressive personality traits — but they do not have to be permanent.

Talking therapies can help to change depressive personality traits, research finds.

Although personality is sometimes thought of as fixed, psychotherapy can actually change it.

Around 13% of the population have depressive personality traits — but they do not have to be permanent.

People with depressive personality traits often feel down and worried and are frequently dissatisfied with life.

They are also likely to be negative and brooding, as well as having low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness.

Dr Rachel Maddux, who completed the research for her doctoral thesis, said:

“The interesting thing was that therapy not only improved the depression itself, it also ameliorated the pervasive depressive traits.”

The conclusions come from a study of 159 people with chronic depression, 44% of whom had depressive personality traits.

The results showed that people with and without depressive personality traits responded to psychotherapy in a similar way.

After treatment, only 11% could still be classified as having a depressive personality disorder.

Both cognitive-behavioural therapy and psychodynamic therapy were effective.

Indeed, people with depressive personality traits actually responded better to the treatment than others.

They had less severe symptoms and greater improvements in depression.

Dr Maddux writes:

“…individuals with DPD [Depressive Personality Disorder] experience significant psychological distress, but they appear to respond as well or better than individuals without DPD to various types of treatment.

Thus, DPD should not be viewed as an impediment to successful outcomes.

Further, DPD itself appears to resolve for many individuals over the course of treatment…”

Dr Maddux said:

“…now I know that there is hope for those with depressive personality.

The next step will be to study other factors that could affect the outcome of treatment; biology, childhood and development, trauma, etc.”

→ Read on: How to change your personality

The thesis was published on the Lund University website (Maddux, 2012).

Almost half the people in the study found their symptoms reduced and 32% had complete remission.

Major depression can be effectively treated in just three minutes at a time with brain stimulation, new research shows.

Treatment-resistant depression does not respond to antidepressants.

Up to around 40% of people may have this type of depression.

However, studies have shown a type of brain stimulation called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can be helpful.

Previously, these sessions took 37.5 minutes each, but new research suggests just three minutes of a different type of brain stimulation can be just as effective.

Intermittent theta burst stimulation, or iTBS, mimics the natural electrical rhythms in the brain.

Dr Daniel Blumberger, the study’s lead author, said:

“The main impact of this study is that the number of people who are able to be treated using theta burst stimulation compared to the standard form of rTMS can be increased by three to four fold.”

For the study, people with treatment-resistant depression were either given the longer or the shorter treatment for five days a week over six weeks.

The results showed that almost half the people in the study found that iTBS reduced their symptoms and 32% had complete remission.

The figures for rTMS were similar, but the iTBS is quicker.

One of the patients, Shelley Hofer, 43, who has had treatment-resistant depression for most of her life, said:

“rTMS has changed my life in so many ways.

I really wish it had been around a long time ago because I believe it would have been my go-to treatment.

In my personal opinion, I feel rTMS could improve the lives of so many people who are still struggling to find the answers to their own mental illness.”

The study was published in the journal The Lancet (Blumberger et al., 2018).