Effect of thought-stopping on thoughts,mood and corrugator EMG in depressed patients

The immediate effects of thought-stopping applied to depressive thoughts were compared to those of a control procedure in a group of depressed psychiatric day-patients. Thought-stopping had only a weak effect on average in reducing the frequency of depressive thoughts, and no significant effects on depressed mood or corrugator EMG. A small significant effect on anxious mood appeared related to non-specific factors. The results raise the possibility that thought-stopping may have little specific effect in reducing the frequency of unwanted thoughts. Corrugator EMG was significantly related to the frequency of spontaneously occurring depressive thoughts both between and within subjects.     

Effects of induced elation-depression on the accessibility of memories of happy and unhappy experiences

Elated and depressed moods were induced in student volunteers on separate occasions. On each occasion they retrieved past real-life experiences associated to stimulus words presented. Subjects subsequently rated the experiences for happiness-unhappiness and pleasantness-unpleasantness on a third occasion in a neutral mood state. Extremely unhappy memories were significantly more likely to be retrieved in the depressed mood than in the elated mood. Extremely happy memories were significantly more likely to be retrieved in the elated mood than in the depressed mood. Measures of latency of retrieval showed a significant interaction between mood state and type of memory. The results confirm the generality of previous findings in suggesting an effect of mood state on the accessibility of different types of cognition. The results are considered in relation to mood as a context in contextual-specific encoding and retrieval, and in relation to models and treatment of clinical conditions.