Denial and somatization as characteristics of bipolar depressed groups

A group of 104 depressed patients (54 bipolar and 50 unipolar) completed the booklet form of the MMPI. In addition to the usual validity and clinical scales of the MMPI, 55 special scales, selected for relevancy to the affective disorders, also were included in the study. Inspection of the 11 of 68 MMPI scales on which the biopolar group had significantly higher mean scores than the unipolar group disclosed a patterning of scales suggestive of the use of denial and somatization. These results, coupled with those of other recent studies, suggest that socially desirable response sets and the use of denial and somatization on the MMPI are adaptive defenses in bipolar depressed groups.