Berecz Hajnalka, Tényi Tamás, Herold Róbert
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Px00E9;cs, Px00E9;cs, Hungary.
Psychopathology. 2016;49(3):125-34. doi: 10.1159/000446707. Epub 2016 Jun 29.
Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to infer the mental states of others in order to understand and predict their behaviour. This ability is thought to be essential to social functioning and interpersonal relationships. As major depression is characterized by considerable social and interpersonal difficulties, exploration of the quality of ToM functioning can be particularly relevant in this and in related disorders. We aim to review the current state of research on ToM in depressive disorders in order to find out the extent to which ToM impairment is associated with these illnesses.
An internet database search was carried out to collect all publications on the subject.
A total of 32 publications in English met our inclusion criteria: (a) 17 studies on ToM in major depression, (b) 4 studies on ToM in psychotic depression, (c) 3 studies on ToM in dysphoria or mild depression, (d) 4 studies on ToM in euthymic major depression, (e) 2 studies on ToM in chronic versus episodic depression, and (f) 2 studies on ToM in another psychiatric disorder with comorbid major depression.
Despite an increased interest in the research of the topic in recent years, no firm conclusions can be drawn, as the reviewed articles present some conflicting results. Acutely depressed patients have been found to be impaired on tasks involving both ToM social-perceptual and social-cognitive components. On the other hand, a number of studies have not reported significant between-group differences between depressed patients and healthy controls or have found minimal differences. Further research is needed in order to confirm and extend these results.
心理理论（ToM）是推断他人心理状态以理解和预测其行为的能力。这种能力被认为对社会功能和人际关系至关重要。由于重度抑郁症的特征是存在相当大的社交和人际困难，因此探索心理理论功能的质量在这种疾病及相关疾病中可能特别重要。我们旨在综述抑郁症中心理理论的当前研究状况，以查明心理理论损害与这些疾病的关联程度。
进行了互联网数据库搜索以收集关于该主题的所有出版物。
共有32篇英文出版物符合我们的纳入标准：（a）17项关于重度抑郁症中心理理论的研究，（b）4项关于精神病性抑郁症中心理理论的研究，（c）3项关于烦躁或轻度抑郁症中心理理论的研究，（d）4项关于心境正常的重度抑郁症中心理理论的研究，（e）2项关于慢性与发作性抑郁症中心理理论的研究，以及（f）2项关于另一种伴有共病重度抑郁症的精神障碍中心理理论的研究。
尽管近年来对该主题的研究兴趣有所增加，但由于综述文章呈现出一些相互矛盾的结果，因此无法得出确凿结论。已发现急性抑郁患者在涉及心理理论社会感知和社会认知成分的任务上存在损害。另一方面，一些研究未报告抑郁患者与健康对照之间存在显著的组间差异，或发现差异极小。需要进一步研究以证实和扩展这些结果。
