Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Depressive personality disorder, sometimes known as melancholic personality disorder, is a controversial psychiatric diagnosis that denotes a personality disorder with depressive features. Depressive personality disorder occurs before, during, and after major depressive episodes, making it a distinct diagnosis not included in the definition of either major depressive episodes or dysthymic disorder. Learn more about depressive personality disorder, its causes, symptoms and treatments in the following pages.