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Changes in personality traits during treatment with sertraline or Citalopram

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Lisa Ekselius  and
Lars Von Knorring
Lisa Ekselius*
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden
Lars Von Knorring
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden
*
Lisa Ekselius, Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, University Hospital, S-751 85 Uppsala. Sweden. Tel: +46-18-66 52 27; Fax: +46-18-515810
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Abstract

Background

Recent studies indicate that selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) reduce the symptoms accompanying personality disorders and modulate a normal personality.

Aims

To examine the effect of two SSRIs, sertraline and Citalopram, on personality traits in major depressed patients.

Method

Personality traits were evaluated at baseline and after six months using the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP).

Results

After treatment, significant changes in the direction of normalisation were seen in all scales. To determine whether the observed changes could be explained by improved depressive symptoms, multiple stepwise regressions with the separate KSP as dependent variables were performed. Improvements in depressive symptoms only accounted for 0–8.4% of the observed variance.

Conclusions

In depressed patients treated with SSRIs significant effects are seen on personality traits measured by the KSP.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 174 , Issue 5 , May 1999 , pp. 444 - 448
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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Footnotes

Declaration of interest

The present study is a separate part of a large study financially supported by Pfizer AB.

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