Emotion regulation and mood brightening in daily life vary with depressive symptom levels

Naturalistic studies of emotional reactivity in depression have repeatedly found larger decreases in negative affect (NA) among depressed individuals in response to daily positive events. This so-called mood-brightening (MB) effect represents a theoretical and empirical oddity. The current study is a secondary analysis investigating whether the MB effect is moderated by spontaneous use of emotion regulation strategies, which have been implicated in the maintenance and modulation of NA in prior work. Participants (N?=?95) representing a large spectrum of depressive symptom severity reported their experiences of NA and the occurrence of positive events in daily life over the course of seven days using the experience sampling method. Our findings replicate and build upon those of prior studies relating to the MB effect in the following ways: (1) we observed the MB effect for specific negative emotions of sadness, anger, anxiety; and (2) we found evidence that the MB effect is moderated by spontaneous use of rumination, distraction, and expressive suppression, which have been shown to enhance or dampen NA. The role of emotion regulation strategies in daily emotional reactivity to pleasant events is discussed.     

Brain Function Associated with Cooccurring Trauma and Depression Symptoms in College Students

The goal of this pilot study was to determine if functional brain differences are present among individuals with high and low cooccurring trauma and depression symptoms. This pilot study examined how the P300 latency component of event-related potentials (ERPs), measured using electroencephalography (EEG) while participants performed a go/no-go task, might be associated with cooccurring self-report of trauma and depression symptoms in a sample of college students (N = 38). Alpha-corrected independent sample t tests revealed statistically significant differences in ERP P300 peak latencies between those in the high cooccurring trauma and depression symptoms group (n = 12) and those in the low group (n = 26) for all 3 midline electrode sites (Fz, Cz, and Pz). This pilot study provides preliminary evidence of differential brain functioning in individuals experiencing cooccurring trauma and depression symptoms. Accordingly, these findings support future research examining brain functioning in cooccurring symptoms.     

Violent obsessions are associated with suicidality in an OCD analog sample of college students

The picture of suicide in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is unclear because previous research did not uniformly control for depressive symptoms when examining the relationship between OCD and suicidality. Specific links between OC symptom dimensions and suicidality were also not adequately studied. As such, we investigated specific associations between OC symptom dimensions and suicidality, beyond the contribution of depressive symptoms, in an OCD analog sample of college students, a group traditionally at risk for suicide. One hundred and forty-six college students (103 females; 43 males) who exceeded the clinical cut-off for OC symptoms on the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory, Revised (OCI-R) were recruited. Participants completed an online questionnaire containing measures that assessed suicidality and OC and depressive symptom severity. Total OC symptom severity, unacceptable thoughts, and especially violent obsessions exhibited significant positive zero-order correlations with suicidality. However, analyses of part correlations indicated that only violent obsessions had a significant unique association with suicidality after controlling for depressive symptoms. Our findings support the hypothesis that violent obsessions have a specific role in suicidality beyond the influence of depressive symptoms in an OCD analog sample of college students. A strong clinical focus on suicide risk assessment and safety planning in college students reporting violent obsessions is therefore warranted. Future related research should employ longitudinal or prospective designs and control for other possible comorbid symptoms in larger and more representative samples of participants formally diagnosed with OCD in order to verify the generalizability of our findings to these groups.     

Effect of post-encoding emotion on recollection and familiarity for pictures

Although prior studies have examined the effect of post-encoding emotional arousal on recognition memory for words, it is unknown whether the enhancement effect observed on words generalizes to pictures. Furthermore, prior studies using words have showed that the effect of emotional arousal can be modulated by stimuli valence and delay in emotion induction, but it is unclear whether such modulation can extend to pictures and whether other factors such as encoding method (incidental vs. intentional encoding) can be modulatory. Five experiments were conducted to answer these questions. In Experiment 1, participants encoded a list of neutral and negative pictures and then watched a 3-min neutral or negative video. The delayed test showed that negative arousal impaired recollection regardless of picture valence but had no effect on familiarity. Experiment 2 replicated the above findings. Experiment 3 was similar to Experiment 1 except that participants watched a 3-min neutral, negative, or positive video and conducted free recall before the recognition test. Unlike the prior two experiments, the impairment effect of negative arousal disappeared. Experiment 4, where the free recall task was eliminated, replicated the results from Experiment 3. Experiment 5 replicated Experiments 1 and 2 and further showed that the impairment effects of negative arousal could be modulated by delay in emotion induction but not by encoding method or stimuli valence. Taken together, the current study suggests that the enhancement effect observed on words may not generalize to pictures.