Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
Nat Hum Behav. 2019 Mar;3(3):265-273. doi: 10.1038/s41562-018-0504-3. Epub 2019 Jan 14.
Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Early life stress exposure increases risk for depression and has been proposed to sensitize the maturing psychophysiological stress system to stress in later life. In response to stress, positive memory activation has been found to dampen cortisol responses and improve mood in humans and to reduce depression-like behaviour in mice. We used path modelling to examine whether recalling specific positive memories predicts reduced vulnerability to depression (high morning cortisol and negative self-cognitions during low mood) in adolescents at risk due to early life stress (n = 427, age 14 years). We found that positive memory specificity was associated with lower morning cortisol and fewer negative self-cognitions during low mood over the course of one year. Moderated mediation analyses demonstrated that positive memory specificity was related to lower depressive symptoms through fewer negative self-cognitions in response to negative life events reported in the one-year interval. These findings indicate that recalling specific positive life experiences may be a resilience factor that helps in lowering depressive vulnerability in adolescents with a history of early life stress.
抑郁症是全球范围内导致残疾的主要原因。早期生活压力暴露会增加患抑郁症的风险，并被提出使成熟的心理生理应激系统对以后生活中的应激敏感化。在应对压力时，人们发现积极的记忆激活可以抑制皮质醇反应，改善情绪，减少小鼠的抑郁样行为。我们使用路径建模来研究在青少年时期经历早期生活压力（n=427，年龄 14 岁）的高危人群中，回忆特定的积极记忆是否可以预测降低患抑郁症的脆弱性（在情绪低落期间早晨皮质醇水平高和自我认知消极）。我们发现，积极记忆的特异性与一年中早晨皮质醇水平较低和情绪低落时自我认知消极的次数较少有关。中介调节分析表明，积极记忆的特异性与较低的抑郁症状有关，因为在一年的时间里，对报告的消极生活事件的消极自我认知减少了。这些发现表明，回忆特定的积极生活经历可能是一种恢复力因素，可以帮助降低有早期生活压力史的青少年的抑郁脆弱性。
