title: Theory of mind in major depressive disorder: A meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Social cognitive deficits can contribute to risk for depression and to psychosocial impairment during depression. However, available evidence suggests that emotion recognition is only marginally impaired in major depressive disorder (MDD). Recent studies have investigated theory of mind (ToM) abilities, a cognitively more demanding aspect of social cognition.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a meta-analysis of studies comparing ToM abilities in MDD and healthy controls. 18 studies comparing 613 patients with MDD and 529 healthy controls were included.
  
  
  RESULTS
  MDD patients significantly underperformed healthy controls in ToM (d=0.51-0.58). ToM impairment in MDD was evident in response to different types of ToM tasks (verbal/visual and cognitive/affective and reasoning/decoding). ToM impairment was significantly related to severity of depressive symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Theory of mind abilities are impaired during depression and can potentially contribute to psychosocial difficulties during depression. There is a need to investigate ToM abilities in different subtypes and stages of depression, especially in remitted patients.
authors.affiliation: The Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, VIC, Australia. Electronic address: emrebora@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Emre
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bora
authors.affiliation: Deakin University, IMPACT Strategic Research Centre, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health, Geelong, Victoria, Australia; Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health and the Centre for Youth Mental Health, The Department of Psychiatry and the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berk
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D056345:Theory of Mind
keywords: Cognition; Functioning; Major depression; Social cognition; Theory of mind