Clinical Picture, Temperament, and Personality of Patients with Mixed States

The construct of mixed states is a robust clinical entity with a high variability of prevalence according to different diagnostic criteria. Despite the changes over the years, current official diagnostic criteria still have poor clinical usefulness. Premorbid characteristics with a potential high clinical importance such as temperament, personality, and emotional reactivity are understudied in patients with mixed states and excluded from the current nosologic systems. The authors provide an overview of current nosography and clinical pictures of mixed states and discuss the role of temperament, personality, and emotional reactivity in mixed states.