Personality and PTSD II: Personality assessment of PTSD-diagnosed Vietnam veterans using the cloninger tridimensional personality questionnaire (TPQ)

Examined Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) responses of 53 Vietnam veterans with Combat-Related Posttraumatic stress disorder. When compared with normative data, veterans were found to be high on harm avoidance (HA), low on reward dependence (RD), and high on novelty seeking (NS). High HA and high NS scores were predictive of increased PTSD symptom severity as assessed by the MMPI-2 PK (PTSD)scale, Mississippi Combat Scale for PTSD (M-PTSD), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Low RD was associated with higher scores on both the MMPI-2 PK and M-PTSD scales. The observed 'high HA-low RD-high NS' TPQ configuration is consistent with previous research findings/clinical observations, and provides insights into a pattern of dysfunctional personality traits often observed in this population.