Perfil de personalidad en una muestra de adolescentes en tratamiento ambulatorio. Estudio preliminar con el MMPI-A

Objective: We examined the personality profile associated to diferents diagnoses in a sample of outpatients of the Mental Health Center for Children and adolescents. Method: 77 adolescents with ages from 13 to 17 were assessed with the MMPI-A. We made a prospective analysis of each clinical report to obtain sociodemographic and clinical data (age, gender, cronicity, diagnostic with CIE- 10 and CFTMA).We show the profiles of both the total sample and of each diagnostic cathegory using descriptive statistics and compared means for the different diagnoses (using Kruskal- Wallis test, Median test, Mann-Whitney test and Kolmogorov- Smirnov test) and for ages (using Pearson bivariate correlations, Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann- Whitney test). Results: All the sample show moderate elevations in Depression and Psychopatic deviation. Differents profiles are associated to each diagnosis and age: psychotic and mixed disorders of conduct and emotions show more severe psychopathology profile in clinical scales and more psychosocial impairment reflected in content scales. Older adolescents (age 16 and 17) have more elevated and significative scores than younger adolescents (age 13 to 15) in depression and introversion. Discussion: Studies revised suggest a substantial degree of association between early onset axis I disorders and axis II psychopathology in late adolescence and young adults. We comment our resultsand discuss the association between mental disorders in childhood and adolescence and personality disfunction. Conclusions: Identification and successful treatment of childhood disorders and severe early impairment, may help to reduce the risk of subsequent development of an adult personality disorder. More research is needed to develop assessment and treatment recommendations addressing the early manifestations of personality disturbance.