title: Nice or effective? Social problem solving strategies in patients with major depressive disorder.
abstract: Our study addressed distinct aspects of social problem solving in 28 hospitalized patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and 28 matched healthy controls. Three scenario-based tests assessed the ability to infer the mental states of story characters in difficult interpersonal situations, the capacity to freely generate good strategies for dealing with such situations and the ability to identify the best solutions among less optimal alternatives. Also, standard tests assessing attention, memory, executive function and trait empathy were administered. Compared to controls, MDD patients showed impaired interpretation of other peoples' sarcastic remarks but not of the mental states underlying other peoples' actions. Furthermore, MDD patients generated fewer strategies that were socially sensitive and practically effective at the same time or at least only socially sensitive. Overall, while the free generation of adequate strategies for difficult social situations was impaired, recognition of optimal solutions among alternatives was spared in MDD patients. Higher generation scores were associated with higher trait empathy and cognitive flexibility scores. We suggest that this specific pattern of impairments ought to be considered in the development of therapies addressing impaired social skills in MDD.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neuropsychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, D-44780 Bochum, Germany. Electronic address: Patrizia.Thoma@rub.de.
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thoma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neuropsychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, D-44780 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Ruhr-University Bochum, LWL University Hospital, Alexandrinenstraße 1-3, D-44791 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Juckel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Ruhr-University Bochum, LWL University Hospital, Alexandrinenstraße 1-3, D-44791 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Norra
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neuropsychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, D-44780 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Suchan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D004645:Empathy; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011340:Problem Solving; D012917:Social Adjustment; D066107:Social Skills; D056345:Theory of Mind
keywords: Depression; Problem solving; Social cognition; Social skills; Theory of mind