Markela-Lerenc Jaana, Kaiser Stefan, Fiedler Peter, Weisbrod Matthias, Mundt Christoph
Department of Psychology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
J Affect Disord. 2006 Aug;94(1-3):261-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2006.04.011. Epub 2006 Jun 9.
The Stroop interference test requires executive control functions, in particular inhibition of a learned routine (in this case word reading). Depressive patients show deficits on tests of executive function. However, the impact of confounding variables like type of depression and anxiety level is not yet elucidated for depressive patients. This is of clinical importance, since executive functions seem to play an important role in predicting treatment response and functional outcome.
23 depressive patients and 27 healthy subjects performed a computerized mixed trial Stroop task. Depressive patients were divided according to DSM-IV diagnosis into melancholic and non-melancholic subgroups. Furthermore the level of anxiety was assessed in all subjects.
When depressed patients were analyzed as a whole group, they showed only a trend towards higher Stroop interference effect at the beginning of the task. When analysis was performed using according to DSM-IV defined melancholic and non-melancholic subgroups, only non-melancholic patients were impaired in the Stroop task compared to melancholic patients and healthy subjects.
The sample size was small resulting in low statistical power. Furthermore, the patients were medicated.
The unexpected result that melancholic patients perform better than non-melancholic ones may be due to their more pronounced rigidity, which makes them more resistant against distraction. Hence, more detailed psychopathological assessment is desirable for future investigations in executive functions of melancholic patients.
斯特鲁普干扰测试需要执行控制功能，尤其是抑制已习得的常规行为（在本案例中为单词阅读）。抑郁症患者在执行功能测试中表现出缺陷。然而，诸如抑郁症类型和焦虑水平等混杂变量对抑郁症患者的影响尚未阐明。这具有临床重要性，因为执行功能似乎在预测治疗反应和功能结局方面发挥着重要作用。
23名抑郁症患者和27名健康受试者进行了计算机化混合试验斯特鲁普任务。抑郁症患者根据《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》第四版（DSM-IV）诊断分为忧郁型和非忧郁型亚组。此外，对所有受试者的焦虑水平进行了评估。
当将抑郁症患者作为一个整体进行分析时，他们在任务开始时仅表现出斯特鲁普干扰效应较高的趋势。当根据DSM-IV定义的忧郁型和非忧郁型亚组进行分析时，与忧郁型患者和健康受试者相比，只有非忧郁型患者在斯特鲁普任务中受损。
样本量小导致统计效力低。此外，患者正在接受药物治疗。
忧郁型患者比非忧郁型患者表现更好这一意外结果可能是由于他们更明显的刻板性，这使他们更能抵抗干扰。因此，未来对忧郁型患者执行功能的研究需要更详细的精神病理学评估。
