Pain as a symptom in depressive disorders. II. Relationship to personality traits as assessed by means of KSP

The series included 140 hospitalized patients with depressive disorders, who were rated by means of the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS). Furthermore, a personality inventory, KSP, was completed when the patients had improved markedly. Forty-six per cent of the patients were found to have pain as a symptom. The patients with pain were found to have more somatic anxiety, more muscular tension, more psychasthenia and more inhibition of aggression but no significant differences were found in guilt. Thus pain as a symptom in depressive disorders seems to be linked to muscular tension and the patients seem to have more introjected aggression while no evidence emerges indicating that pain could serve to relieve the feelings of guilt.