A case of depressive personality disorder: Aligning theory, practice, and clinical research.

Abstract

Depressive personality disorder (DPD) is highly studied and common in clinical settings. Nevertheless, it is rife with controversies and often overshadowed by major depression and dysthymia with which it shares many similarities but also is clinically distinct. Possibly as a result, DPD is underdiagnosed and misunderstood in clinical care. Thus the goal of this practice review is to present a case from psychiatric clinical work illustrating how DPD may be commonly overlooked in routine care, and how the conceptualization of this case and its treatment plan changed course once DPD was considered by treating staff, ultimately contributing to the successful outcome of the case. Questions elicited by the case are subsequently discussed in the context of the empirical literature on DPD, allowing for a clearer picture to emerge on DPD and its role in the development, course, and treatment of depression.

Relationships among depressive, passive-aggressive, sadistic and self-defeating personality disorder features with suicidal ideation and reasons for living among older adults

“…The search results revealed the depressive personality was clearly the most studied of the group (with 125 citations), followed by self-defeating personality (69 citations), passive aggressive personality (27 citations), and sadistic personality (17 citations). Depressive PD has the most evidence for construct validity (see review by Maddux & Johansson, 2014). Few, if any, of these studies included older adults in the samples, revealing a significant dearth of knowledge about the impact and expression of these PD dimensions in later life.…”