Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a severe mental disorder with a high genetic load, in which is relevant to identify potential differences in affective temperaments between both diagnostic subtypes.

To find differences between BDI and BDII patients in affective temperaments evaluated by Temperament Evaluation of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego TEMPS-A.

A sample of 407 euthymic patients with diagnosis of bipolar disorder type I (BDI= 307) or type II (BDII= 100) according to DSM-IV-TR criteria being age 18 or older was recruited from the Bipolar and Depressive Disorders Unit of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. Five affective temperaments were evaluated using the TEMPS-A. It was initially verified that the scores of these temperaments do not fulfil the assumption of normality by means of tests. Differences in means were estimated using Mann-Whitney U and Chi square tests (p <0.05) as appropriate, and ANCOVA controlling the effect of confounding variables.

Data revealed that patients with BD II had significantly higher scores in four affective temperaments: dysthymic, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious compared to BDI. After controlling the most relevant moderating variables, BDII patients continued to show higher scores in irritable temperament .

BDII patients present a more irritable temperament than BDI (p=0,037), which can affect the course and management of the disease. It could be suggested that presenting higher scores of these temperaments could be associated with BDII and further studies are needed to replicate this finding since it might help the clinicians in early phases to guide in the diagnostic process.

No significant relationships.

Ratings of affective temperament types show promise in helping to differentiate diagnostic groups among major affective disorders as well as to predict associations with important aspects of morbidity including suicidal risk.

The Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego auto-rating (TEMPS-A) questionnaire was completed by 858 unselected, consecutive, consenting adults diagnosed with a DSM-5 major affective disorder (173 bipolar-1 [BD-1]), 250 BD-2, 435 major depressive disorder [MDD]) to score for anxious (anx), cyclothymic (cyc), dysthymic (dys), hyperthymic (hyp), and irritable (irr) affective temperaments. We tested their associations with diagnosis and selected clinical factors, including diagnosis, depression scores, suicidal ideation or acts, substance abuse, episodes/year, and %-time ill.

Scores for cyc ranked: BD-2 > BD-1 > MDD; anx ranked: MDD > BD-2 > BD-1; irr was greater in BD than MDD; dys was greater in MDD than BD; hyp did not differ by diagnosis. We confirmed associations of suicidal risk with higher scores of all temperament types except lower hyp scores. Higher cyc and irr scores and lower anx scores were associated with substance abuse. Several scores were higher with measures of greater affective morbidity: cyc with current depression, episodes/year, and %-time ill; irr with more episodes and depressions/year and greater %-time manic. Some of these associations were selective for BD or MDD.

The findings indicate that TEMPS-A ratings of affective temperament types can contribute to differential diagnoses and predict types and amounts of affective morbidity, as well as detecting suicidal risks.

While the links between cyclothymia and creativity are well documented, the experts have tried to determine whether temperament would influence the major choices of life such as career.

The study aims mainly to evaluate the temperaments of a sample of Tunisian students, and to look for the possible correlations between the temperament and the choice of studies.

The Tunisian version of the TEMPS-A which is a self-evaluation measure to assess affective temperaments was administered to 100 medical students and 100 humanities students.

Student populations differed in their socio-demographic and scholar variables such as age, sex ratio or socio-economic level, choice of studies and their religiosity. The temperamental prevalences were close between our two populations by considering the threshold score Mean +1standard deviation; they ranged between 13 and 18%. Hyperthymic and cyclothymic scores were significantly higher among humanities students (11.38 ± 4.385 versus 9.00 ± 4.192 and 11.96 ± 4.497 versus 9.63 ± 4.499 respectively) and irritable scores were higher in the latter, though not significant (6.45 ± 3.823 versus 5.39 ± 2.998). Depressive and anxious temperament scores were close in both groups. The study showed significant temperament differences within gender, socioeconomic status, high school marks, religiosity and political affiliation.

It is relevant and even necessary to include such studies in the selection of candidates who could adapt to a specific professional field on the basis of objective criteria such as conscientiousness, and privileging profile diversity.

Une étude préliminaire a évalué la fréquence des tempéraments affectifs décrits par Akiskal et al. [1] dans une population de patients alcoolo-dépendants [2]. Dans cette étude, le score moyen à la sous-échelle du tempérament dépressif était significativement plus élevé dans un groupe de sujets alcoolo-dépendants par rapport à un groupe de témoins [2]. Les objectifs de notre étude étaient :

– déterminer si la dépression pouvait influencer le lien entre tempérament dépressif et alcoolodépendance ;

– comparer les tempéraments entre un groupe de patients alcoolo-dépendants déprimés et un groupe de patients alcoolo-dépendants non déprimés.

Cent dix-huit patients, consultant consécutivement, de juillet 2014 à mars 2015, dans le service d’addictologie de l’hôpital Sainte-Anne (Paris) pour alcoolo-dépendance, ont été inclus dans l’étude. Un groupe de sujets alcoolo-dépendants déprimés (n = 38) a été comparé à un groupe de sujets alcoolo-dépendants non déprimés (n = 80). Ils ont été évalués à l’aide de l’auto-questionnaire Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego (TEMPS-A), à 39 items, explorant les cinq sous-échelles du tempérament affectif :

– cyclothymique ;

– dépressif ;

– irritable ;

– hyperthymique ;

– anxieux [3].

Les troubles psychiatriques associés ont été évalués à l’aide du MINI et de l’échelle de dépression de Beck, à 13 items.

Le score total moyen à l’auto-questionnaire TEMPS-A était plus élevé dans le groupe des patients alcoolo-dépendants déprimés que dans le groupe des patients alcoolo-dépendants non déprimés (respectivement scores moyens : 19,24 ± 5,73 vs 14,25 ± 6, 41, p < 0,001). Les scores moyens aux sous-échelles dépressive, cyclothymique et anxieuse étaient significativement plus élevés dans le groupe de patients alcoolo-dépendants déprimés. En revanche, il n’y avait pas de différences significatives pour les sous-échelles irritable et hyperthymique.

La dépression peut constituer un facteur de confusion dans le lien retrouvé antérieurement entre tempérament dépressif et l’alcoolo-dépendance.