Over a 2-year period of admissions to a psychiatric open ward of a general teaching hospital, all patients clinically diagnosed as neurotic depressive reaction were systematically assessed at the time of admission and again at discharge on scales measuring faulty styles of coping and manifest distress. Ratings were made by the patients themselves, by the residents who treated them, and by nurses on the ward. Two types of character profiles were noted: one reflected patients with impulsive, intrusive, defiant, guarded, and grandiose patterns and the other, patients who felt constricted, socially isolated, helpless, vulnerable, and worthless. Improvement over the course of hospitalization was found to be more associated with the latter characterological profile in this group of patients than with the former. Patients with impulsive-defensive features improved no more often than might be attributed to chance factors in this setting