Chunk #49 — PERSONALITY TRAIT DIMENSIONS — The Five-Factor Model — Evidence bearing on causal models — Cross-sectional comparisons of remitted patients and controls
A number of early studies used remission designs, comparing patients who had recovered from a depressive episode to never-depressed controls or population norms on self-rated personality traits. These studies found that E/PE is significantly lower in formerly depressed patients than in healthy controls (Hirschfeld et al. 1983a, Reich et al. 1987), arguing against the concomitants model and in favor of the precursor, predisposition, and/or consequences models. However, the results for N/NE were less consistent (Hirschfeld et al. 1983a, Reich et al. 1987). This inconsistency may be due to a number of factors, including insufficiently stringent criteria for recovery, thereby possibly confounding personality and residual symptoms; using normative data collected by other investigators, which may introduce demographic and sociocultural differences between the formerly depressed and comparison samples; and selection effects, as N/NE is associated with a poorer course (discussed below) and thus samples of remitted depressives may include a disproportionate number with low levels of this trait.
