Negative emotions towards others are diminished in remitted major depression.
BACKGROUND
One influential view is that vulnerability to major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a proneness to experience negative emotions in general. In contrast, blame attribution theories emphasise the importance of blaming oneself rather than others for negative events. Our previous exploratory study provided support for the attributional hypothesis that patients with remitted MDD show no overall bias towards negative emotions, but a selective bias towards emotions entailing self-blame relative to emotions that entail blaming others. More specifically, we found a decreased proneness for contempt/disgust towards others relative to oneself (i.e. self-contempt bias). Here, we report a definitive test of the competing general negative versus specific attributional bias theories of MDD.


METHODS
We compared a medication-free remitted MDD (n=101) and a control group (n=70) with no family or personal history of MDD on a previously validated experimental test of moral emotions. The task measures proneness to specific emotions associated with different types of self-blame (guilt, shame, self-contempt/disgust, self-indignation/anger) and blame of others (other-indignation/anger, other-contempt/disgust) whilst controlling for the intensity of unpleasantness.


RESULTS
We confirmed the hypothesis that patients with MDD exhibit an increased self-contempt bias with a reduction in contempt/disgust towards others. Furthermore, they also showed a decreased proneness for indignation/anger towards others.


CONCLUSIONS
This corroborates the prediction that vulnerability to MDD is associated with an imbalance of specific self- and other-blaming emotions rather than a general increase in negative emotions. This has important implications for neurocognitive models and calls for novel focussed interventions to rebalance blame in MDD.
Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, Department of Psychological Medicine, Centre for Affective Disorders, London, SE5 8AZ, United Kingdom; The University of Manchester and Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, School of Psychological Sciences, Neuroscience and Aphasia Research Unit, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom. Electronic address: roland.zahn@kcl.ac.uk.
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R
Zahn
The University of Manchester and Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, School of Psychological Sciences, Neuroscience and Aphasia Research Unit, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
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KE
Lythe
The University of Manchester and Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, School of Psychological Sciences, Neuroscience and Aphasia Research Unit, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
J A
JA
Gethin
The University of Manchester and Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, School of Psychological Sciences, Neuroscience and Aphasia Research Unit, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
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S
Green
The University of Manchester and Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
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JF
Deakin
The University of Manchester and Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom; The University of Manchester and Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, School of Psychological Sciences, Neuroscience and Aphasia Research Unit, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
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C
Workman
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit, D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), 22280-080, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
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J
Moll
D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012074:Remission Induction; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult
Attributional style; Major depressive disorder; Moral emotions; Overgeneralization; Self-blame; Vulnerability