title: Emotional variability and clarity in depression and social anxiety.
abstract: Recent research has underscored the importance of elucidating specific patterns of emotion that characterise mental disorders. We examined two emotion traits, emotional variability and emotional clarity, in relation to both categorical (diagnostic interview) and dimensional (self-report) measures of major depressive disorder (MDD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) in women diagnosed with MDD only (n = 35), SAD only (n = 31), MDD and SAD (n = 26) or no psychiatric disorder (n = 38). Results of the categorical analyses suggest that elevated emotional variability and diminished emotional clarity are transdiagnostic of MDD and SAD. More specifically, emotional variability was elevated for MDD and SAD diagnoses compared to no diagnosis, showing an additive effect for co-occurring MDD and SAD. Similarly diminished levels of emotional clarity characterised all three clinical groups compared to the healthy control group. Dimensional findings suggest that although emotional variability is associated more consistently with depression than with social anxiety, emotional clarity is associated more consistently with social anxiety than with depression. Results are interpreted using a threshold and dose-response framework.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Washington University in St. Louis , 1 Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1125, St. Louis , MO 63130 , USA.
authors.forename: Renee J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: b Center for Innovation to Implementation, VA Palo Alto Health Care System , 795 Willow Rd., Menlo Park , CA 94025 , USA.
authors.forename: Matthew Tyler
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Boden
authors.affiliation: c Department of Psychology , Stanford University , 450 Serra Mall, Stanford , CA 94305 , USA.
authors.forename: Ian H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Gotlib
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D057566:Self Report; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Social anxiety; clarity of emotion; depression; emotional instability; emotional variability