Resilience, coping, personality traits, self-esteem and quality of life in mood disorders

Introduction Resilience is a dynamic, context- and time-specific process that refers to positive adaptation or ability to maintain or regain mental health despite experiencing adversity. Pathways to resilience include biological, psychological, social and dispositional attributes. In mood disorders, resilience may influence frequency of relapse, severity of episodes and response to treatment. Aims To evaluate resilience as well as personality features, coping abilities, self-esteem and quality of life in a sample of mood disorder patients. Methods We recruited mood disorder patients at the Psychiatry institute AOU Maggiore della Carità, Novara. Socio-demographic data were gathered and patients filled in the following self-administered scales: Resilience Scale for Adult (RSA), Brief Cope, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), Paykel list of stressful events, Temperamental and Character Inventory (TCI), Quality of life (SF-36). Results We collected data from 61 patients. Statistical analysis was performed by calculating the Pearson Correlation Coefficient between the RSA and the other tests. We observed a positive correlation between RSA and coping “Emotion” and coping “Problem”. A negative correlation was found between RSA and coping “Avoidance”. Resilience was also positively related to self-esteem and physical, mental and general health. As far as personality traits are concerned, resilience was positively correlated with Reward dependence, persistence, self transcendence, self directedness and cooperativeness. Conclusions Since higher resilience levels are related with better physical and mental health, constructive coping and self-esteem, strategies aimed at enhancing resilience could improve treatment and quality of life in patients with mood disorders.