Am J Psychiatry 1985; 142:94-97
Copyright © 1985 by American Psychiatric Association
Neuroendocrine and personality variables in dysthymic disorder
A Roy, M Sutton and D Pickar
In an attempt to characterize a subgroup of depressed patients diagnosed as
having dysthymic disorder, the authors gave them two commonly used
biological tests for depression and several personality inventories and
compared the results with those from age- and sex- matched normal control
subjects. There were no significant differences between the 11 early-onset
dysthymic disorder patients and the 11 controls on the dexamethasone
suppression test or the thyrotropin- releasing hormone test. The
personality questionnaires, however, showed that the dysthymic disorder
patients were significantly more neurotic, extrapunitive, and intrapunitive
and had significantly lower self- esteem than the control subjects.
