Institute of Mental Health, 10000 Belgrade, Serbia,
Psychiatr Danub. 2020 Spring;32(1):97-104. doi: 10.24869/psyd.2020.97.
In order to explore whether gender differences are present in self-reports on personality measures when all Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) participants are diagnosed at an equal intensity, the aim of this study was to investigate individual and gender differences in personality between healthy participants and those suffering from severe feature MDD.
The sample consisted of 632 participants: 385 in the healthy control group and 247 MDD, the latter comprised of patients in their first diagnosed episode or recurrent. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) was used to measure symptom severity. Beck's Depression Inventory was administered when depression symptoms had lessened, establishing it as minor when filling out the personality questionnaire (NEO-PI-R).
The results indicate a broad difference in personality between the healthy control and the MDD groups. High neuroticism and low extraversion, accompanied by low scores on openness and conscientiousness, were the most important personality dimensions in understanding distinctions. While agreeableness did not indicate any important role, it did significantly influence the understanding of gender differences within groups. Females were found more agreeable in both groups, but those from the healthy group were also more open and conscientiousness than healthy males. Females from the MDD group were found to be also higher on neuroticism than males of the same group.
A general conclusion from the study is that personality dimensions are more important in understanding vulnerability to depression in comparison to gender differences in personality within groups. As females in the MDD group tend to self-report higher levels of agreeableness and neuroticism than do males in the same group when the level of their depression is categorized as equal MDD-severe type, this may influence practitioners to unequally diagnose depression in males and females.
为了探究在所有重度抑郁症（MDD）患者都以相同强度被诊断的情况下，人格测量的自我报告是否存在性别差异，本研究旨在探究健康参与者和患有重度 MDD 特征的参与者之间的个体和性别差异。
该样本包括 632 名参与者：385 名健康对照组和 247 名 MDD 组，后者包括首次诊断或复发的患者。使用汉密尔顿抑郁评定量表（HAM-D）来衡量症状严重程度。当抑郁症状减轻时，会进行贝克抑郁量表评估，并将其作为在填写人格问卷（NEO-PI-R）时的轻度抑郁。
结果表明，健康对照组和 MDD 组之间的人格存在广泛差异。高神经质和低外向性，伴有开放性和尽责性得分较低，是理解差异的最重要人格维度。虽然宜人性没有表现出任何重要作用，但它确实对理解群体内的性别差异有重要影响。在两个组中，女性都更宜人性，但健康组的女性比健康男性更开放和尽责。MDD 组的女性也比同组男性更具神经质。
从研究中得出的一个普遍结论是，人格维度在理解易患抑郁症方面比群体内的人格性别差异更重要。由于 MDD 组中的女性在将其抑郁程度归类为同等 MDD-重度类型时，自我报告的宜人性和神经质水平高于同组中的男性，这可能会影响医生对男性和女性的抑郁症进行不平等诊断。
