Brockmeyer Timo, Kulessa Dominika, Hautzinger Martin, Bents Hinrich, Backenstrass Matthias
Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Institute of Clinical Psychology, Hospital Stuttgart, Prießnitzweg 24, 70374 Stuttgart, Germany; Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Tübingen, Schleichstr 4, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
J Affect Disord. 2015 Nov 15;187:91-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.08.010. Epub 2015 Aug 24.
Previous studies suggest that mood-incongruent processing constitutes an adaptive mood regulation strategy, and that difficulties in this process may contribute to the maintenance of depression. However, no study has yet examined whether mood-incongruent processing predicts the course and severity of clinical depression.
To address this question, the present study used a prospective, longitudinal design to examine the effects of mood-incongruent processing in a sample of 59 clinically depressed patients. At baseline, participants were asked to recall and describe a sad and a happy life event. Participants' utterances were transcribed and analysed using computerized text analysis. Negated emotion words were excluded. The proportion of positive emotion words during sad memory recall was used as an indicator of mood-incongruent processing. After 6 months, participants were re-assessed for symptom levels and the criteria of major depressive disorder (MDD) during the follow-up period.
Higher relative frequency of positive emotion words during sad memory recall was associated with less symptoms of depression at follow-up and shorter time to recovery from MDD, over and above baseline symptoms of depression. The effect was not just due to increased general positivity in emotional expression or emotional expressiveness per se.
The sample size and the timeframe for the follow-up assessment were limited. Furthermore, it is unknown to which degree word use reflects the actual experience of the expressed emotions.
The findings highlight the role of mood-incongruent processing in the maintenance of depression and advocate a stronger focus on mood-incongruent processing in the treatment of depression.
先前的研究表明，情绪不一致加工构成一种适应性情绪调节策略，且这一过程中的困难可能导致抑郁症的持续存在。然而，尚无研究考察情绪不一致加工是否能预测临床抑郁症的病程和严重程度。
为解决这一问题，本研究采用前瞻性纵向设计，对59名临床抑郁症患者样本进行情绪不一致加工效应的考察。在基线期，要求参与者回忆并描述一件悲伤的和一件快乐的生活事件。参与者的话语被转录并使用计算机文本分析进行分析。否定性情感词被排除。悲伤记忆回忆期间积极情感词的比例被用作情绪不一致加工的指标。6个月后，对参与者在随访期间的症状水平和重度抑郁症（MDD）标准进行重新评估。
在悲伤记忆回忆期间，积极情感词的相对频率较高与随访时较少的抑郁症状以及从MDD恢复所需的较短时间相关，这超出了抑郁症的基线症状。该效应不仅仅是由于情绪表达中总体积极性的增加或情绪表达本身的增加。
样本量和随访评估的时间范围有限。此外，尚不清楚词汇使用在多大程度上反映了所表达情绪的实际体验。
研究结果突出了情绪不一致加工在抑郁症持续存在中的作用，并主张在抑郁症治疗中更加强调对情绪不一致加工的关注。
