Individuals who have depressive personality disorder may have a pessimistic outlook on life, low self-esteem and worry more than others, according to LiveStrong.

Over time, these negative personality traits may take a toll on people’s health, but this does not always have to be the case, according to new research from Lund University in Sweden.

Psychologist Rachel Maddux looked into the reasons why certain people with this disorder can change their personality and others cannot, according to the University’s website. She found that psychotherapy seems to help.

According to Maddux’s research, 44 percent of people who go to psychologists also have depressive personality traits. Furthermore, two forms of psychotherapy – cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic therapy – both helped these patients reduce their depressive personality traits, the website stated.

"The interesting thing was that therapy not only improved the depression itself, it also ameliorated the pervasive depressive traits," Maddux said.

To avoid the potentially harmful effects of depressive personality disorder, individuals who show signs of its symptoms may want to take a personality test and see if they truly do have a negative outlook on life.

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