title: Does processing of emotional stimuli predict symptomatic improvement and diagnostic recovery from major depression?
abstract: This study was designed to examine whether processing of emotional stimuli predicts both symptomatic improvement and recovery from depression. Participants diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (N=63) completed information-processing tasks to assess attention to and memory for sad, physically threatening, socially threatening, and happy stimuli. At a follow-up session an average of nine months later, participants were reassessed to determine diagnostic status and depression severity. None of the measure of attention or memory predicted diagnostic status at follow-up. Those depressed participants who remembered a higher proportion of positive words that they had endorsed as self-descriptive exhibited greater symptomatic improvement. After controlling for memory of positive self-referential words, attentional measures did not predict symptomatic change. These results are consistent with a growing literature highlighting the importance of emotionally relevant memory processes for understanding the course of major depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Sheri L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Jutta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Joormann
authors.forename: Ian H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Gotlib
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001288:Attention; D003289:Convalescence; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D014825:Vocabulary