Affective temperaments of Lebanese patients with schizophrenia: comparison by gender and severity of psychosis

Objectives Our aim in this study was to identify affective temperament differences utilizing the TEMPS-A in a large sample size of Lebanese patients with schizophrenia and compare them to healthy controls. Gender differences, demographic factors and degree of psychotic symptoms were also considered. A cross‐sectional study was conducted at the Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross (PHC) from March to June 2019. Two-hundred fifty chronic patients with schizophrenia were compared to 250 healthy controls randomly chosen from the general population. Results Patients with schizophrenia significantly had higher mean depressive, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious temperament scores compared to healthy controls. Healthy controls significantly had a higher mean hyperthymic temperament score compared to patients with schizophrenia. In the group of patients with schizophrenia exclusively, females scored higher in terms of depressive, cyclothymic and anxious temperaments compared to males. In the group of healthy controls, males scored higher in terms of hyperthymic and irritable temperaments compared to females, whereas a higher mean depressive and anxious temperament scores were significantly found in females compared to males. In addition, higher PANSS total scores, as well as higher positive, negative and general subscales scores were significantly associated with higher depressive, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious temperament scores.

Temperament and Visual Category Learning Strategy Use

Transient affective states have been shown to affect cognition, including category learning, but less is known about the role of stable temperament traits and categorization. We examined affective temperament traits to see whether the tendency to experience negative and positive affect is predictive of category learning performance and strategy use. Working memory and attentional control were measured as covariates. Participants first completed the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (Evans & Rothbart, 2007) including two affective temperament factors and an attentional control factor. Then they completed a memory task followed by either a conjunctive rule-based (CR) or an information integration (II) category learning task. Results showed that people who tend to experience more positive affect and less negative affect achieved higher accuracy and were more likely to find the optimal strategy in the II task compared to people who tend to experience more negative affect and less positive affect. However, no performance or strategy use difference was seen in the CR task across different temperament profiles. These results extend prior literature and provide additional insights on the effects of stable traits on category learning.

Comparison of Emotional Dysregulation Features in Cyclothymia and Adult ADHD

Background and Objectives: Emotional dysregulation is central to the problem of the overlap between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and cyclothymia. The aim of the study was to evaluate comorbidity rates between ADHD and cyclothymic disorder and to explore demographic and clinical differences among the groups, focusing on affective temperament and emotional dysregulation. Materials and Methods: One hundred sixty-five outpatients attending the Second Psychiatry Unit at the Santa Chiara University Hospital (Pisa) were consecutively recruited: 80 were diagnosed with ADHD, 60 with cyclothymic disorder, and 25 with both conditions. Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego (TEMPS-M) and the 40-item version of Reactivity, Intensity, Polarity, and Stability questionnaire (RI-PoSt-40) were administered. Results: Cyclothymic patients were more frequently female and older with respect to the ADHD groups. Both comorbid and non-comorbid ADHD patients showed significantly lower educational attainment and more frequently had substance use disorders. Panic disorder was common in non-comorbid cyclothymic patients, who showed significantly higher rates of familial panic disorder, major depressive disorder and suicide attempts in comparison with patients only diagnosed with ADHD. Cyclothymic patients without ADHD were also characterized by fewer hyperthymic temperamental traits, higher depressive and anxious dispositions, and a greater negative emotionality. No significant differences among groups were observed for cyclothymic temperament and overall negative emotional dysregulation, but comorbid patients with both conditions scored the highest in these subscales. This group also showed significantly higher affective instability with respect to ADHD patients without cyclothymia and was less frequently diagnosed with bipolar disorder type II than patients from both the other groups. Conclusions: ADHD and cyclothymia often co-occur and show similar levels of emotional dysregulation. However, cyclothymic patients may be more prone to negative emotionality in clinical settings. Subjects with “sunny” cyclothymic features might escape the attention of clinicians unless ADHD is present.

Personalities of the Hyperthymic Circle: Evolution of Conception Views and Patokinesis

The aim of review: to present the evolution of the concepts and pathokinesis of hyperthymia.Materials and methods: according to the keywords “personality of the hyperthymic circle”, “hyperthymia”, “bipolar affective disorder”, “chronic hypomania”, publications were searched in PubMed/MEDLINE, RSCI and other sources from the middle of the 19th century to the present.Conclusion: in science, historically, two intersecting psychopathological concepts of hyperthymia have developed, positioning it as a single continuum of bipolar disorder and affective temperament/personality disorder. In recent years, thanks to the success and introduction of biological psychiatry, studies have appeared that confirm the structural-dynamic and pathogenetic integrity of hyperthymia.