title: Selective attention in depression: influence of emotionality and personal relevance.
abstract: Selective attention to negative stimuli has been discussed as being an essential characteristic of depressive disorder. Theories and empirical data, however, are contradictory. The present study addressed the question of whether depressive patients selectively attend to negatively valenced and personally relevant or irrelevant stimuli and whether they habituate to these stimuli. Thirty-one inpatients with major depressive disorder and 37 healthy controls participated in the study. They underwent a modification of the emotional Stroop paradigm. The results indicated that personally relevant stimuli evoked more pronounced Stroop interference than did stimuli without personal relevance in all subjects. Furthermore, habituation to personally relevant negative stimuli was seen in both depressive patients and control subjects. The present findings question a generally negative attentional bias as being a specific characteristic of depressive disorder. Furthermore, as depressed patients habituated to personally relevant negative stimuli, exposure therapy might be suitable for the treatment of depressive disorder.
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Bethel, Ev. Hospital Bielefeld, Remterweg 69-71, Bielefeld, Germany. nicole.schlosser@evkb.de
authors: Nicole
authors: N
authors: Schlosser
authors: Christoph
authors: C
authors: Mensebach
authors: Nina
authors: N
authors: Rullkötter
authors: Camille
authors: C
authors: Schaffrath
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Driessen
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Beblo
authors: Katja
authors: K
authors: Wingenfeld
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D057190:Stroop Test; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires