Dimensional Personality Traits and Treatment Outcome in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

International audience; BACKGROUND: This study investigated the association between dimensional personality traits from the Five-Factor Model (FFM) and treatment outcome in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).METHODS: Six hundred forty-nine outpatients with MDD participated in a randomised double-blind longitudinal study for 6 months. Patients received a combination of medication and psychotherapy; they were randomised to medication condition (tianeptine or fluoxetine), and non-randomly assigned to psychotherapy condition (supportive, cognitive-behavioural, or psychodynamic). The Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale was used to assess depression severity. The Système de Description en Cinq Dimensions was used to assess the personality domains of the FFM.RESULTS: Group comparisons revealed that patients who responded to both medication and psychotherapy had lower Neuroticism (t=4.22, p