title: Theory of mind in social anxiety disorder, depression, and comorbid conditions.
abstract: Social anxiety disorder is characterized by marked interpersonal impairment, particularly when presenting with comorbid major depression. However, the foundational social-cognitive skills that underlie interpersonal impairment in comorbid and non-comorbid manifestations of SAD has to date received very little empirical investigation. In a sample of 119 young adults, the current study examined differences in theory of mind (ToM), defined as the ability to decode and reason about others' mental states, across four groups: (a) non-comorbid SAD; (b) non-comorbid Lifetime MDD; (c) comorbid SAD and Lifetime MDD; and (d) healthy control. The non-comorbid SAD group was significantly less accurate at decoding mental states than the non-comorbid MDD and control groups. Further, both the comorbid and non-comorbid SAD groups made significantly more 'excessive' ToM reasoning errors than the non-comorbid MDD group, suggesting a pattern of over-mentalizing. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the social cognitive foundations of social anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L3N6, Canada. Electronic address: dustin.washburn@queensu.ca.
authors.forename: Dustin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Washburn
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L3N6, Canada.
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L3N6, Canada.
authors.forename: Meighen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roes
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L3N6, Canada.
authors.forename: Katerina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rnic
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L3N6, Canada.
authors.forename: Kate Leslie
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Harkness
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D056345:Theory of Mind; D013850:Thinking; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Comorbidity; Major depression; Social anxiety disorder; Theory of mind