Depressive personality disorder

Depressive personality disorder (also known as melancholic personality disorder) is a psychiatric diagnosis that denotes a personality disorder with depressive features.

Originally included in the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-II^{[citation needed]}, depressive personality disorder was removed from the DSM-III and DSM-III-R.^{[1][failed verification]} The latest description of depressive personality disorder is described in Appendix B in the DSM-IV-TR. Although no longer listed as a personality disorder in the DSM-5, the diagnosis of subclinical Other Specified Personality Disorder and Unspecified Personality Disorder can be used to classify an equivalent of depressive personality disorder.^[2] In the DSM-5, it has been reconsidered for reinstatement as a diagnosis in an alternative approach to personality disorders in the form of "general criteria for personality disorder" which primarily assesses "impairments in personality functioning".^[2]

While depressive personality disorder shares some similarities with mood disorders such as dysthymia, it also shares many similarities with other personality disorders including avoidant personality disorder. Some researchers argue that depressive personality disorder is sufficiently distinct from these other conditions so as to warrant a separate diagnosis.