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Many have considered the ultimate goal of psychoanalysis to be personality change, though we often expect symptom change will occur as well. Historically, pharmacological treatment has been conceptualized as providing symptom relief so that patients can more fully engage in therapy; less frequently have analysts believed these medications will fulfill the goal of personality change. However, a new study, by T. Z. Tang and colleagues, suggests that antidepressant medication may lead to personality as well as symptom change in depressed patients, and that greater personality change while on medication may prevent relapse into depression.
Patients in treatment outcome studies frequently show changes in personality following a course of antidepressant medication, but in connection with symptom changes. The common explanation for this correlation between changes in symptoms and in personality has been the state-effect hypothesis: when in the state of depression, patients ascribe more negative personality traits to themselves; when they feel better, they feel less need to report those same characteristics. Tang and colleagues tested this