Narcissism and central serotonergic neurotransmission in depression

Abstract

Objectives

Based on previous research, it has been proposed that the development of depressive disorders is related to altered functioning of the serotonergic systems as well as the personality style, including narcissism. However, it is unclear to date how personality style, especially narcissism, depressive disorders and serotonergic activity are related.

Methods

We included 74 patients with a depressive disorder (DP) and 74 healthy controls (HC) in the study. All participants completed the Personality Style and Disorder Inventory (PSDI) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI II). Moreover, we conducted EEG recordings for analysis of serotonergic neurotransmission by using the so-called intensity or loudness dependence of the auditory evoked potentials (LDAEP).

Results

Significantly higher LDAEP results emerged for the DP group compared to the HC group, which indicated lower serotonergic activity in the patient's group. In addition, the positive correlation between ambitious-narcissistic personality and LDAEP reached significance in depressive patients.

Limitations

There was only a monocentric cross-sectional study with only one scale having differences between the two groups due to age and education.

Conclusions

Our data supports the theory of lower serotonergic activity in patients with depressive disorders and further suggests that high narcissistic personality traits are related to lower serotonergic neurotransmission in patients.

Keywords:

• Personality styles
• PSDI
• Narcissism
• serotonin
• loudness dependence auditory evoked potentials (LDAEP)

Acknowledgements

Frau Bettina Klostermann.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the local ethics committee (No.: 18-6413) of the Medical Faculty of the Ruhr-University Bochum.

Consent to participate

All participants gave written informed consent.

Consent for publication

The authors approve the final version.

Comments

The partial results presented here are data from the medical dissertation of Florian Seltsam and David Kiefner.

Author contributions

GJ designed the study. FS and DK recruited and investigated the volunteers. They and GJ, PM, and VF analysed the data. PM wrote the first draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data are available on request.