Mood Regulation and Cognitive Reactivity in Depression Vulnerability

Varying Cognitive Scars - Differential Associations Between Types of Childhood Maltreatment and Facial Emotion Processing

Background

Distorted cognitive processing has been found among survivors of child maltreatment. However, different types of abuse and neglect may bring about differences in emotion and attention processing. The present study aimed to detect differential associations between various types of childhood maltreatment and attentional biases in facial emotion processing.

Methods

A non-clinical sample was recruited on University campus and consisted of 67 individuals with varying degrees of maltreatment. In an evaluative conditioning task, images of faces with neutral emotional expressions were either associated with short videos of intense negative statements, or associated with neutral videos. Subsequently, these faces were used as stimuli in a face in the crowd recognition task in which the familiar faces had to be recognized within a crowd of unfamiliar neutral faces.

Results

In multiple linear regression analyses controlling for the intercorrelatedness of types of maltreatment, differential relationships between types of maltreatment and attentional bias were found. While emotional abuse was associated with faster detection of negatively associated faces, emotional neglect was associated with an impaired recognition of familiar stimuli regardless of the emotional content.

Conclusion

Results indicated that interindividual differences in cognitive biases may be due to the activation of diverse cognitive schemas based on differential experiences of maltreatment.

Thought-Action Fusion in Individuals with a History of Recurrent Depression and Suicidal Depression: Findings from a Community Sample

Although suicidal ideation is one of the most consistent symptoms across recurrent episodes of depression, the mechanisms underpinning its maintenance are poorly understood. In order to develop effective treatments for suicidally depressed patients, understanding what maintains suicidal distress is critical. We hypothesised that Thought–Action Fusion (TAF), i.e., to assume that having a thought has real world consequences, originally described in Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder, might be a bias in recurrently suicidally depressed people. To assess this, we revised the original TAF scale, and assessed TAF in three samples: healthy controls, recurrently depressed individuals with no history of suicidality (D-NS) and individuals with a history of recurrent suicidal depression (D-S). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated a three-factor solution of TAF: (1) TAF for uncontrollable events, (2) self-suicidal TAF for suicidal acts related to oneself, and (3) TAF for positive controllable events. Compared to healthy controls, the D-NS group reported significantly higher total TAF, TAF uncontrollable, and TAF self-suicidal subscales, whilst positive controllable TAF was lower compared to healthy controls. Both D-S and D-NS samples reported higher TAF for suicidal thought compared to healthy controls, i.e., believing that having suicidal thoughts means they will act on them, however in the context of low mood this became more pronounced for the D-S group. These findings suggest that targeting TAF both in suicidal and non-suicidal depression has merit.

Mood-incongruent processing during the recall of a sad life event predicts the course and severity of depression

BACKGROUND

Previous studies suggest that mood-incongruent processing constitutes an adaptive mood regulation strategy, and that difficulties in this process may contribute to the maintenance of depression. However, no study has yet examined whether mood-incongruent processing predicts the course and severity of clinical depression.

METHODS

To address this question, the present study used a prospective, longitudinal design to examine the effects of mood-incongruent processing in a sample of 59 clinically depressed patients. At baseline, participants were asked to recall and describe a sad and a happy life event. Participants' utterances were transcribed and analysed using computerized text analysis. Negated emotion words were excluded. The proportion of positive emotion words during sad memory recall was used as an indicator of mood-incongruent processing. After 6 months, participants were re-assessed for symptom levels and the criteria of major depressive disorder (MDD) during the follow-up period.

RESULTS

Higher relative frequency of positive emotion words during sad memory recall was associated with less symptoms of depression at follow-up and shorter time to recovery from MDD, over and above baseline symptoms of depression. The effect was not just due to increased general positivity in emotional expression or emotional expressiveness per se.

LIMITATIONS

The sample size and the timeframe for the follow-up assessment were limited. Furthermore, it is unknown to which degree word use reflects the actual experience of the expressed emotions.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings highlight the role of mood-incongruent processing in the maintenance of depression and advocate a stronger focus on mood-incongruent processing in the treatment of depression.

DAS-18 Form A und Form B

Zusammenfassung. Die Skala dysfunktionaler Einstellungen (DAS) hat sich als ein effektives Selbstbeurteilungsinstrument erwiesen. Vor allem zur Untersuchung der kognitiven Vulnerabilität und Reaktivität bei remittiert depressiven Personen ist ein unmittelbarer Vergleich der Änderung dysfunktionaler Einstellungen in kurzen Zeitabständen notwendig. Bislang gab es keine geeigneten parallelen Kurzversionen für die DAS. Die Studie untersucht die psychometrischen Eigenschaften sowie die Vergleichbarkeit der DAS-18A und DAS-18B. Bei 94 depressiven und 110 gesunden Probanden wurden die psychometrischen Kennwerte der Kurzversionen ermittelt. Ergebnisse: DAS-18A und DAS-18B zeigten gute Reliabilitäts- und Validitätswerte sowie eine ähnliche Item-Faktor-Zuordnung wie die Ausgangsform der DAS. Die Ergebnisse empfehlen die beiden Kurzversionen als parallele und zeitökonomische Testformen, die für wiederholte (Labor–) Untersuchungen geeignet sind.

Associations between childhood maltreatment and emotion processing biases in major depression: results from a dot-probe task

BACKGROUND

Childhood maltreatment is considered an important risk factor for the development of major depression. Research indicates an association between childhood adversity and altered emotion processing. Depression is characterized by mood-congruent cognitive biases, which play a crucial role in symptom persistence and recurrence. However, whether attentional biases in adult major depression are associated with experienced childhood neglect or abuse remains unclear.

METHODS

A sample of 45 patients suffering from major depression were recruited to examine correlations between maltreatment experienced during childhood and attentional biases to sad and happy facial expressions. Attention allocation was assessed using the dot-probe task and a history of childhood maltreatment was measured by means of the 25-item Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ).

RESULTS

Our results indicate an association between childhood maltreatment and sustained attention toward sad facial expressions. This relationship was not confounded by severity of symptoms, age, verbal intelligence or more recent stressful experiences.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings confirm the hypothesis that a mood-congruent bias in emotion processing observed in major depression is related to early traumatic experiences.

The temporal dynamics of cognitive reactivity and their association with the depression risk: an exploratory study

BACKGROUND

Cognitive reactivity is the change in depressive thinking in response to negative mood. Previous research indicates that cognitive reactivity is an important variable in the etiology and course of depression. The present study tested which time interval after a negative mood induction is critical for the prediction of the depression risk.

METHODS

Participants suffering from a major depressive disorder were recruited when entering inpatient treatment. At the end of inpatient treatment they completed an experimental procedure to assess their depressive thinking once before and twice after a negative mood induction. Subsequently, patients were followed up for 26 weeks.

RESULTS

The immediate change in depressive thinking in response to the negative mood induction was negatively associated with future depression. The delayed change did not predict the depression risk.

CONCLUSION

The negative association between the immediate change in depressive thinking and the depression risk is not in line with results from previous studies on cognitive reactivity. Previous research on emotion context insensitivity and the avoidance of negative thoughts offers hypotheses which could account for this result. Further research is needed to shed light on the processes underlying cognitive reactivity.

Adaptive cognitive emotion regulation moderates the relationship between dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms during a stressful life period: a prospective study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Dysfunctional cognitions are known to emerge in stressful situations and are critical for the onset of depressive symptoms. The goal of this study is to investigate whether adaptive and/or maladaptive emotion regulation strategies moderate the relationship between dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms under stress.

METHODS

In a longitudinal study, 92 healthy but unselected undergraduates were followed for three months including a stress period (four weeks of examinations).

RESULTS

Our findings demonstrate that the more adaptive emotion regulation strategies are used in daily life (measured at baseline), the weaker the relationship between dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms during stress. Interestingly, no single strategy demonstrates a unique predictive value, but only the combination of several adaptive strategies moderates the relationship between dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms. Although participants with elevated depressive symptoms use more maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, these latter strategies do not moderate the association between dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms.

LIMITATIONS

The use of a sample of undergraduates limits the generalizability and the clinical significance of our results.

CONCLUSIONS

Altogether, although dysfunctional attitudes are activated and accessible in response to certain life stressors, the strategies that healthy individuals use to adaptively regulate these cognitions seem important in determining the likelihood of depressive symptoms.

Kognitive Reaktivität und Stressbelastung als Prädiktoren eines Rezidivs bei remittiert depressiven Personen

Theoretischer Hintergrund: Obwohl einige Studien zeigten, dass eine gesteigerte kognitive Reaktivität einen Risikofaktor für einen depressiven Rückfall darstellt, konnte dieser Befund von anderen Arbeitsgruppen nicht bestätigt werden. Fragestellung: Daher wollen wir mit einer Replikationsstudie zur Klärung der Frage beitragen, inwiefern kognitive Reaktivität und Stressbelastung ein depressives Rezidiv vorhersagen. Methode: Bei 39 remittierten Depressiven nach einer stationären Behandlung sowie 45 gesunden Kontrollpersonen wurde die kognitive Reaktivität gemessen. Die remittiert depressive Gruppe absolvierte darüber hinaus eine 16-monatige Katamnesephase. Ergebnisse: Am Ende der stationären Behandlung stellte sich bei der Patientengruppe eine signifikante Reduktion der dysfunktionalen Einstellungen heraus. Die kognitive Reaktivität erwies sich als bedeutsamer Prädiktor eines depressiven Rückfalls, insbesondere wenn die Anzahl negativer Lebensereignisse im Katamnesezeitraum berücksichtigt wurde. Schlussfolgerung: Kognitive Reaktivität wurde als wichtiger Prädiktor eines depressiven Rezidivs bestätigt.

Lower body weight is associated with less negative emotions in sad autobiographical memories of patients with anorexia nervosa

Food restriction and weight-loss have been proposed to represent pathogenic mechanisms of emotion regulation in anorexia nervosa (AN). However, there is a lack of studies empirically examining this hypothesis. Therefore, the present study compared 25 women with AN and 25 healthy control women (HC) regarding spontaneous emotional processing of autobiographic memories. Participants' idiographic memories of sad autobiographic events were analyzed using computerized, quantitative text analysis as an unobtrusive approach of nonreactive assessment. Compared to HC, AN patients retrieved more negative but a comparable number of positive emotions. Moreover, the lesser the body weight in AN patients, the lesser negative emotions they retrieved, irrespective of current levels of depressive symptoms and duration of illness. No such association was found in HC. These preliminary findings are in line with models of AN proposing that food restriction and weight-loss may be negatively reinforced by the alleviation of aversive emotional responses.