Maladaptive personality traits in patients with recent-onset psychosis: A case-control study using the Personality Inventory for the DSM-5 (PID-5).

Background: The relationship between maladaptive personality traits and psychotic disorders in the early stages of disease has not been thoroughly investigated, even though it is essential for developing prevention and early intervention strategies.

Methods: The five domains and the 25 facets of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) were compared between 102 patients with recent-onset psychosis (ROP) and 116 community subjects (C) with a general linear model including age and sex in the analyses. In addition, multiple linear regression models were used to identify which factors associated with the PID-5 domains in ROP, and correlation analyses were used to explore the relationship between personality traits.

Results: Patients with ROP, compared to C, exhibited higher scores in four out of the five domains with medium effect sizes (Cohen's f ≥ 0.15) in two of them: negative affect (NA, p = 0.013, f = 0.04), detachment (DET, p < 0.001, f = 0.15), disinhibition (DIS, p < 0.001, f = 0.14) and psychoticism (PSY, p < 0.001, f = 0.16). Significant group differences were observed in 15 of the 25 facets and the largest effects were observed in the facets of withdrawal (p ≤ 0.001, f = 0.20), irresponsibility (p < 0.001, f = 0.23) and unusual beliefs (p = 0.001, f = 0.22). Interestingly, being on antidepressants and high scores on the positive subscale of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were associated with high scores of NA, antagonism (ANT) and PSY.

Conclusions: Maladaptive personality traits were prominent in persons with ROP. These findings suggest that personality traits might play a role in vulnerability to psychosis and highlight the importance of evaluating personality in the early stages of psychosis.