Word use of outpatients with a personality disorder and concurrent or previous major depressive disorder

In a recent study, Rude, Gortner, and Pennebaker (2004) found word use to be related to depression and vulnerability to depression in the essays of college students. We sought to replicate and extend these findings in a clinical sample. Written essays of 304 psychiatric outpatients with a personality disorder and a mixed psychiatric profile on DSM-IV axis-I and 108 healthy controls were examined with word count software. Data on the tendency to be discrepant about the current self compared to a more ideal self were also gathered. We found that psychiatric outpatients in general used more words referring to the self and negative emotion words and fewer positive emotion words, compared to healthy controls. However, word-use proved unrelated to depression specifically. Actual-ideal self discrepancies were related to patient status and to current depression. Contrary to our hypothesis, these discrepancies did not correlate with the use of words referring to the self. We conclude that the negative content and self-focus of written essays and high levels of discrepancy reflect a negative thinking style that is common to a range of psychiatric disorders rather than being specific to depression.     

Visuospatial and mathematical dysfunction in major depressive disorder and/or panic disorder: A study of parietal functioning

The parietal cortex is critical for several different cognitive functions, including visuospatial processing and mathematical abilities. There is strong evidence indicating parietal dysfunction in depression. However, it is less clear whether anxiety is associated with parietal dysfunction and whether comorbid depression and anxiety are associated with greater impairment. The present study compared participants with major depression (MDD), panic disorder (PD), comorbid MDD/PD and controls on neuropsychological measures of visuospatial processing, Judgement of Line Orientation (JLO), and mathematical abilities, Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) Arithmetic. Only comorbid MDD/PD was associated with decreased performance on JLO, whereas all psychopathological groups exhibited comparably decreased performance on WRAT Arithmetic. Furthermore, the results were not accounted for by other comorbid disorders, medication use or psychopathology severity. The present study suggests comorbid depression and anxious arousal are associated with impairment in visuospatial processing and provides novel evidence indicating mathematical deficits across depression and/or anxiety. Implications for understanding parietal dysfunction in internalising psychopathology are discussed.     

Gender differences in major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder

This paper reviews the literature on gender differences in major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BPD). Beginning in adolescence, women are at a higher risk than men of becoming depressed. Avenues of investigation that might ultimately help to explain this phenomenon include studies of gender differences in the processing of emotional stimuli, the psychotropic effects of gonadal steroids, and environment/gene interactions in men and women. With the exception of the elevated suicide rate among men, consistent gender differences in the course and symptoms of MDD have not been found. In BPD, women are more likely than men to develop a rapid-cycling course. Gender differences in treatment response, particularly in regard to mood stabilizing medications, warrant further study.     

Predicting recurrence of major depressive disorder in young adults: a prospective study.

Sixty-five young adults with remitted major depressive disorder (MDD) were followed for 18 months. Recurrence of MDD was reported by 41.5% of the initial sample and 49.1% of those who completed the study (n = 53). Survival analyses were used to identify predictors of recurrence so that individuals at greatest risk could be targeted for intervention. Potential predictors included measures of comorbid psychopathology (Axis II pathology, and current and lifetime nonmood Axis I diagnoses), depression-specific clinical features (number of episodes, past treatment, and suicidality), and self-reported cognitive and interpersonal constructs (hope, dysfunctional attitudes, and interpersonal problems). Only personality pathology (specifically, the total dimensional and Cluster B dimensional scores on the International Personality Disorder Examination) significantly predicted hazard of recurrence.     

Ambulatory emotional reactivity to negative daily life events predicts remission from major depressive disorder

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is often associated with altered emotional reactivity. However, the functional significance of altered emotional reactivity in MDD is uncertain. This study was the first to examine the predictive relationship between intensely sampled ambulatory emotional reactivity and the clinical course of MDD. Forty-six outpatients who met criteria for MDD underwent six days of experience sampling of their ambulatory reactivity to everyday negative and positive life events. After experience sampling, all outpatients received pharmacotherapy with supportive psychotherapy and were followed clinically for 18 months. At one month, less emotional reactivity to negative and positive daily events predicted higher depressive symptom severity. Importantly, patients who exhibited less negative emotional reactivity to daily negative life events were less likely to recover from MDD over the 18 month follow-up. Relationships between ambulatory emotional reactivity and MDD course were not accounted for by the duration or the severity of initial MDD symptoms. Diminished ambulatory emotional reactivity appears to be functionally significant in depression. Intensive sampling of ambulatory emotions may have utility for predicting the clinical course of MDD.     

Crying threshold and intensity in major depressive disorder

Clinical lore suggests that depression is associated with frequent and intense crying. To test these postulations empirically, a standardized cry-evoking stimulus was presented to depressed and nondepressed participants, and their likelihood of crying and the magnitude of crying-related changes in their emotion experience, behavior, and autonomic physiology were compared. Unexpectedly, crying was no more likely in depressed than in nondepressed participants. Within the nondepressed group, participants who cried exhibited increases in the report and display of sadness and had greater cardiac and electrodermal activation than did participants who did not cry. There was less evidence of this crying-related emotional activation within the depressed group. The lack of emotional activation among clinically depressed participants who cried provides a tantalizing clue concerning how emotions are dysregulated in this disorder.     

Psychosocial functioning of young adults who have experienced and recovered from major depressive disorder during adolescence

The authors examined whether adolescent major depressive disorder (MDD) was associated with difficulties in young adult functioning and whether differences would remain significant after accounting for nonmood disorder, MDD recurrence, functioning in adolescence, or current mood state. A total of 941 participants were assessed twice during adolescence and at age 24. In unadjusted analyses, adolescent MDD was associated with most young adult functioning measures. Associations were not due to interactions with adolescent comorbidity, but differences in global functioning and mental health treatment appeared as a result of MDD recurrence. Accounting for levels of functioning in adolescence or for current depression at age 24 eliminated the remaining associations. The implications of these findings for efforts to prevent MDD in adolescence are discussed.     

Diurnal mood variation in major depressive disorder

Depression disturbs mood, but a clear picture of diurnal mood rhythms in depression has yet to emerge. This study examined variations in positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), two dimensions of mood that generate diurnal patterns among healthy individuals. Repeated measurements of NA and PA in daily life were obtained over 6 days from 47 depressed outpatients and 39 healthy individuals using the Experience Sampling Method. Relative to healthy individuals, depressed individuals exhibited increasing PA levels during the day with a later acrophase. In contrast, depressed persons' NA exhibited a more pronounced diurnal rhythm and was more variable from moment to moment than healthy individuals'. Ambulatory mood measurements in depression suggest distinct diurnal disturbances of positive and negative affect.     

Emotion context insensitivity in major depressive disorder

The present study tested 3 competing views of how depression alters emotional reactivity: positive attenuation (reduced positive), negative potentiation (increased negative), and emotion context insensitivity (ECI; reduced positive and negative). Normative and idiographic stimuli that elicited happy, sad, and neutral states were presented to currently depressed, formerly depressed, and healthy control individuals while experiential, behavioral, and autonomic responses were measured. Currently depressed individuals reported less sadness reactivity and less happiness experience across all conditions than did the other participants, and they exhibited a more dysphoric response to idiographic than to normative stimuli. Overall, data provide partial support for the positive attenuation and ECI views. Depression may produce mood-state-dependent changes in emotional reactivity that are most pronounced in emotion experience reports.     

Perfectionism and depression symptom severity in major depressive disorder.

In recent years it has been recognized that perfectionism is a multidimensional construct and two Multidimensional Perfectionism Scales have been developed and investigated in relative isolation [Frost, R.O., Marten, P., Lahart, C., & Rosenblate, R. (1990). The dimensions of perfectionism. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 449-468; Hewitt, P.L., & Flett, G.L. (1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456-470]. The present study sought to evaluate the association between various dimensions of perfectionism, higher-order personality dimensions, and self and observer rated depressive symptoms in a group of 145 patients with major depressive disorder. Only three of ten perfectionism dimensions (socially prescribed perfectionism, concern over mistakes and self-criticism) displayed medium to large correlations with depressive symptoms, especially self-report symptoms reflecting depressive cognitive distortions. The results are discussed in relation to the specificity of perfectionism dimensions to depression, adaptive versus maladaptive aspects of perfectionism, and in the context of previous research, much of which has relied on college student samples.     

A Japanese treatment used in major depressive disorder in adolescence

The purpose of the present report is to study the efficacy of a Dohsahou, a Japanese Psychorehabilitation method, in a treatment of major depression in three men (M age = 20 yr.), selected randomly for treatment. Initially, participants' baseline condition was assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, and the Family Assessment of Depression Questionnaire. Each subject had 12 sessions of 45 min. training over 4 wk. Postassessment and follow-up assessment were done. Findings for pre- and posttreatment test data indicated depression was reduced, being mainly evident in cognitive, somatic, and affective symptoms related to lower depression.     

Daily affective reactivity as a prospective predictor of depressive symptoms

Daily affective reactivity refers to the within-subject relationship between daily stress and daily mood. Most stress researchers have conceptualized daily affective reactivity as a dependent variable to be predicted by individual difference variables such as personality and psychopathology. In contrast, in our recent research, we have conceptualized daily affective reactivity as an independent variable that can predict depressive symptoms. In this article, we summarize three studies that relied on a daily process methodology and multilevel modeling to assess affective reactivity in the context of daily stressful events. Two of the studies (Cohen, Butler, Gunthert, & Beck, 2005; Gunthert, Cohen, Butler, & Beck, 2005) sampled adult outpatients in cognitive therapy and evaluated the predictive role of daily affective reactivity in treatment outcome (depression reduction). A third study (O'Neill, Cohen, Tolpin, & Gunthert, 2004) evaluated the predictive role of college students' daily affective reactivity in the development of depressive symptoms. We consider the strengths and weaknesses of a daily process methodology for research on depression in both clinical and nonclinical samples.     

Cognitive and neural consequences of memory suppression in major depressive disorder

Negative biases in cognition have been documented consistently in major depressive disorder (MDD), including difficulties in the ability to control the processing of negative material. Although negative information-processing biases have been studied using both behavioral and neuroimaging paradigms, relatively little research has been conducted examining the difficulties of depressed persons with inhibiting the retrieval of negative information from long-term memory. In this study, we used the think/no-think paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the cognitive and neural consequences of memory suppression in individuals diagnosed with depression and in healthy controls. The participants showed typical behavioral forgetting effects, but contrary to our hypotheses, there were no differences between the depressed and nondepressed participants or between neutral and negative memories. Relative to controls, depressed individuals exhibited greater activity in right middle frontal gyrus during memory suppression, regardless of the valence of the suppressed stimuli, and differential activity in the amygdala and hippocampus during memory suppression involving negatively valenced stimuli. These findings indicate that depressed individuals are characterized by neural anomalies during the suppression of long-term memories, increasing our understanding of the brain bases of negative cognitive biases in MDD.     

Selective attention in social phobia and the moderating effect of a concurrent depressive disorder

Studies using the modified Stroop colour naming task have provided results consistent with the hypothesis that social phobia is associated with an attentional bias towards negative social-evaluative words. However, these results could also have arisen as a consequence of non-attentional processes. For this reason, the present study uses a modified version of MacLeod et al.'s (J. Abnorm. Psychol. 95 (1986) 15) dot-probe task, which provides a more direct measure of attention. Patients with social phobia (n=28), patients with social phobia and a concurrent depressive disorder (n=33), and non-patients (n=40) were presented with word pairs each consisting of a neutral word and a threat word. The results indicated that patients with social phobia show an attentional bias towards social-threat words while non-patients tend to avoid social-threat words. Patients with social phobia and a concurrent depressive disorder behaved like non-patients, indicating that concurrent depression abolishes the attentional bias. Physical threat words were also included in the study. The main analysis indicated that social phobia is also associated with an attentional bias to physical threat. However, a post hoc analysis (which requires replication) suggested that the physical threat bias might have arisen because some social phobia patients also had another anxiety disorder in which physical concerns are likely to have been prominent. Overall, the results emphasise the importance of assessing comorbidity when investigating attentional biases.     

Major life events and major chronic difficulties are differentially associated with history of major depressive episodes

Major life events have been found to precede onsets of a 1st lifetime episode of depression more commonly than subsequent recurrences. Despite general empirical support for this finding, few data directly address how the role of major life events may change over successive recurrences. Further, little research has examined major chronic difficulties in relation to a 1st lifetime episode versus a recurrence of depression. The present study tested the associations between major life events and major difficulties in relation to lifetime history of depressive episodes in a sample of 96 individuals diagnosed with major depression. Using investigator-based measures of life stress, the authors found that, whereas major life events were associated with fewer lifetime episodes, major chronic difficulties were related to more prior episodes. These findings are discussed in terms of underlying mechanisms that may account for the changing role of major life stress over successive recurrences of depression.     

The symptomatic expression of major depressive disorder in adolescents and young adults

Data from the Oregon Adolescent Depression Project were used to examine the symptomatic expression of major depressive disorder (MDD) as a function of age and gender. The objective was to investigate the phenomenological nature of MDD among a cohort of adolescents as they progressed into early adulthood. The analyses were based on 564 participants who had experienced MDD in their lifetime. No systematic differences in the relative rate of occurrence of specific symptoms across episodes and only minor symptom differences between male and female participants were found. Age did not significantly influence the symptom picture. Stability of specific symptoms and episode severity across episodes was low. The results are discussed within the context of a stressor-symptom matching model.     

Life events and depression in adolescence: relationship loss as a prospective risk factor for first onset of major depressive disorder

Although stressful life events have consistently been linked to the onset of major depressive disorder (MDD), most research has not distinguished 1st episodes from recurrences. In a large epidemiologic sample of older adolescents (N = 1,470) assessed at 2 time points, the risk conferred by a recent romantic break-up was examined as a predictor of 1st onset versus recurrence of MDD. Results indicated a heightened likelihood of 1st onset of MDD during adolescence if a recent break-up had been reported; in contrast, a recent break-up did not predict recurrence of depression. These results held for both genders and remained significant after controlling for gender. Additional analyses to determine the discriminant validity and specificity of these findings strongly supported the recent break-up as a significant risk factor for a 1st episode of MDD during adolescence. Implications of these findings and subsequent research directions are discussed.     

Effects of daily events on mood states in major depressive disorder

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by high negative affect (NA) and low positive affect (PA), but little is known about emotional reactivity in daily life. The authors used experience sampling methodology to investigate changes in NA and PA following minor daily events in MDD compared with healthy participants. Contrary to expectation, MDD participants did not report more frequent negative events, although they did report fewer positive events. Multilevel regression showed that both NA and PA responses to negative events were blunted in the MDD group, whereas responses to positive events were enhanced. NA responses to negative events persisted longer in MDD participants. Depressed participants with a positive family history or longer current episodes showed relatively greater NA responses to negative events.