De lange termijn effecten van depressiebehandeling op neuroticisme

Abstract Objective: Until now, the effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on neu-roticism is only studied short-term, and in clinical settings. We therefore investigated the effects of SSRIs and various depression treatments on neuroticism scores during a 3-year follow-up in an effectiveness trial. Design: randomized controlled effectiveness trial Methods: 229 patients with major depressive disorder were selected form the INSTEL sam-ple by their use of SSRIs. They were randomized into four different treatment groups: usual care (UC), psycho-educational prevention (PEP) program, psychiatrist-enhanced PEP (PC+PEP) and cognitive behavioral therapy-enhanced PEP (CBT+PEP). At baseline and at 3 year follow-up we measured depression (Beck Depression Inventory) and neuroticism (NEO-Five Factor Inventory). Use of medication was assessed quarterly. Results: Patients using SSRIs only briefly had no higher neuroticism scores than did patients that used the medication during almost the entire follow-up. In addition, there was no short term association between using SSRIs or not using SSRIs at baseline and at 3 year follow-up and the neuroticism scores. The four types of treatment could not differentially predict the final neuroticism scores. There was a decline in neuroticism scores, which was largely ex-plained by the decline in depression scores (R2= 0,576). Conclusion: At the long-term only the decline is depression scores was associated with a de-cline in neuroticism scores.