Contingent negative variation and personality in depression

Contingent negative variation (CNV) has been applied in depression with controversial results. A major source for these controversial results could result from the diversity of depressed patients included in the different studies. Supporting this assumption, impulsivity, blunted affect and suicidal behavior significantly influence CNV amplitude. However, no data are available on the possible influences of personality of depressed patients on CNV. Since personality is related to CNV in normal subjects, the aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between CNV and personality as assessed by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) in 52 depressed patients. A group of 76 healthy volunteers was included in the study. Among depressed patients, the main results of the study shows that CNV amplitude is positively correlated with self-transcendence dimension. In healthy volunteers, results show that CNV amplitude is negatively correlated with novelty seeking and persistence dimensions. The other dimensions are not related to CNV amplitude either in depressed patients or in healthy volunteers. The findings among depressed subjects suggest that lower CNV amplitude may be associated with psychotic traits (high self-transcendence scores), and those observed in healthy subjects are consistent with previous studies and support energetical models of slow potentials. However, the preliminary nature of the present results with respect to the weak statistical significance should be underlined.