Encephale
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The psychobiological model of personality developed by Cloninger, including four dimensions of temperament and three dimensions of character, allows to explore personality factors associated with depressive disorders. The three main dimensions of temperament are Novelty Seeking (NS), ie the tendency towards excitement in response to novel or rewarding stimuli, Harm Avoidance (HA) hypothesized to represent the tendency to respond intensely to signals of adverse stimuli, and Reward Dependence reflecting the tendency to respond intensely to signals of reward and to maintain behavior previously associated with reward. These personality traits are hypothetically related to underlying neurotransmetter systems (especially NS to dopaminergic function and HA to serotonergic function). ⋯ More specifically, correlations have been obtained between platelet serotonergic markers (5-HT2a receptors) and Harm Avoidance scores also in depressed patients. In conclusion, Harm Avoidance seems to be a vulnerability factor or at least an associated factor to depressive disorders. This temperament dimension is supposed to be highly heritable, and to be linked to the serotonergic system variations.