Suslow Thomas, Dannlowski Udo, Lalee-Mentzel Judith, Donges Uta-Susan, Arolt Volker, Kersting Anette
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, 48149 Münster, Germany.
J Affect Disord. 2004 Nov 15;83(1):59-63. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2004.03.003.
In this study, a face-in-the-crowd task was applied to examine the spatial detection of facial emotion as a function of depression and comorbid anxiety in the course of a psychotherapeutic inpatient treatment.
Patients with unipolar depression (n=22) and normal controls (n=22) were tested twice, about 7 weeks apart, on a face-in-the-crowd task using displays of schematic faces. Half the patients were suffering from a comorbid anxiety disorder.
From test 1 to test 2, depressivity, frequency of negative thoughts, and worrying of patients improved significantly. At both sessions, depressed patients, irrespective of the presence of comorbid anxiety disorders, showed no performance differences in the detection of negative faces compared to controls. However, depressed patients with but not those without comorbid anxiety disorders were slower in responding to positive faces than controls. Both patient groups were slower in responding to the neutral faces' condition than controls.
Our data indicate a spatial processing deficit for positive facial expression in depressives with a comorbid anxiety disorder. This impairment, which appears to persist during remission, might be due to deficits in effortful visual search processes.
在本研究中，采用了“人群中的面孔”任务来检验在住院心理治疗过程中，面部情绪的空间检测与抑郁及共病焦虑的关系。
对22名单相抑郁症患者和22名正常对照者进行了两次测试，两次测试间隔约7周，使用示意性面孔展示进行“人群中的面孔”任务测试。其中一半患者患有共病焦虑症。
从测试1到测试2，患者的抑郁程度、消极思维频率和担忧程度均有显著改善。在两个测试阶段，与对照组相比，抑郁症患者无论是否患有共病焦虑症，在检测负面面孔时均未表现出性能差异。然而，患有共病焦虑症的抑郁症患者在对正面面孔的反应上比对照组慢，而无共病焦虑症的患者则不然。两组患者在对中性面孔的反应上均比对照组慢。
我们的数据表明，患有共病焦虑症的抑郁症患者在处理正面面部表情时存在空间加工缺陷。这种缺陷在缓解期似乎仍然存在，可能是由于费力的视觉搜索过程存在缺陷所致。
