Original article
A study of temperamental features with the TEMPS-A scale (Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego – Autoquestionnaire version) in patients with schizophrenia and affective disorders

Introduction: The TEMPS-A scale (Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego – Autoquestionnaire version) measures five types of affective temperaments: depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic, irritable and anxious. It has been verified in the Polish population and used in our country to measure connections between affective temperaments and clinical, pharmacological and genetic factors in various mental and somatic disorders and in healthy subjects.

The aim of this study was to compare the intensity of affective temperament traits in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (BD) and unipolar disorder (UD).

Material and methods: The study involved 167 people, including 58 patients with schizophrenia (35 men, 23 women), 52 patients with bipolar disorder (22 men, 30 women) and 57 patients with UD (24 men, 33 women). With reference to current clinical and genetic concepts, a detailed comparison between schizophrenia and BD and between bipolar and unipolar disorder was made.

Results: A comparison between patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder showed statistically higher scores of irritable temperament in the BD group. On the other hand, a comparison of patients with BD and UD showed significantly higher scores of cyclothymic and irritable temperaments in the bipolar group. Higher scores of hyperthymic temperament in the BD group compared with the UD group did not reach the level of statistical significance.

Conclusions: A lack of significant differences in 4 out of 5 affective temperaments studied between patients with schizophrenia and BD may correspond to the results of studies showing a common genetic predisposition to these diseases. On the other hand, the differences in cyclothymic, irritable, and to some extent, hyperthymic temperaments between patients with BD compared with UD may be used for prediction of high risk of subsequent conversion to BD, in UD patients having higher scores of these temperaments.