Personality traits and escitalopram treatment outcome in major depression

Abstract

Background: Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) have proven to be effective in treatment of depression. Still, treatment efficacy varies significantly from patient to patient and about 40% of patients do not respond to initial treatment. Personality traits have been considered one source of variability in treatment outcome.

Aim: Current study aimed at identifying specific personality traits that could be predictive of treatment response and/or the dynamics of symptom change in depressive patients.

Method: In a sample of 132 outpatients with major depressive disorder (MDD) treated with an SSRI-group antidepressant escitalopram, the Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP) were used in order to find predictive personality traits. For the assessment of the severity of depressive symptoms and the improvement rates, the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) and Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) were used.

Results: Escitalopram-treated MDD patients with higher social desirability achieved more rapid decrease in symptom severity. None of the studied traits predicted the end result of the treatment.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that specific personality traits may predict the trajectory of symptom change rather than the overall improvement rate.

Keywords:

• Major depressive disorder
• SSRI
• personality
• treatment outcome
• Swedish universities scales of personality

Acknowledgements

Authors thank study nurses Birgit Aumeste, Merle Taevik and Ketlin Veeväli for their assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Estonian Science Foundation grant 7034, target grant SF0180125s08 of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and the institutional research funding IUT20-45 of the Estonian Research Council.