Warth Marco, Stoffel Martin, Winter Friederike, Jarczok Marc N, Aguilar-Raab Corina, Ditzen Beate
Institute of Medical Psychology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany.
Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Front Psychiatry. 2020 Jul 30;11:701. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00701. eCollection 2020.
Depressive disorders are associated with attentional bias and social anhedonia. There is evidence supporting the hypothesis that depressed individuals participate less in potentially rewarding social situations and exhibit alterations in stress reactivity. With the present study, we aimed at investigating the affective and psychobiological response of couples with a depressed (female) partner in an instructed partnership appreciation task (PAT) that included positive and appreciative communication.
In a quasi-experimental repeated-measures design, depressive couples (DCs)-i.e., the female partner being diagnosed with a depressive disorder-were compared to non-depressive couples (NDCs). Study outcomes were the PAT-induced changes in state mood, momentary relationship satisfaction, salivary cortisol, and salivary alpha-amylase. Additionally, we assessed psychometric baseline data on depression, relationship quality, social support, and chronic stress. Data was analyzed using multilevel modeling.
A total of 184 individuals from = 47 DCs and = 45 NDCs were included. DCs were characterized by higher depressiveness, lower relationship quality, less actually received social support from the partner, and higher chronic stress than NDCs. Manipulation checks led to the additional exclusion of two couples. Regarding mood, depressed women showed lower baseline scores and no significant differences in mood increase compared to non-depressed women ( = 0.107). Increases in relationship satisfaction were significantly stronger in the depressed group ( = 0.035). In addition, we found a significantly stronger cortisol increase in depressed women, but only if relationship duration was taken into account as a moderating factor ( = 0.022). No significant group differences were found for women's amylase trajectories or for sex-dependent interaction effects on the couple level (all 0.05).
Instructed engagement in positive couple interaction may require high effort and increased psychobiological arousal, but may finally result in emotional and social benefits in depressed women. While these findings encourage speculations about the therapeutic application of instructed partnership appreciation, more research is needed on the effectiveness of such interventions and on the moderating role of relationship duration in depression and couple functioning.
抑郁症与注意力偏差和社交快感缺失有关。有证据支持这样的假设，即抑郁个体较少参与可能带来回报的社交情境，并表现出应激反应的改变。在本研究中，我们旨在调查在一项包含积极和赞赏性交流的指导性伴侣欣赏任务（PAT）中，一方（女性）患有抑郁症的伴侣的情感和心理生物学反应。
在一项准实验性重复测量设计中，将抑郁伴侣（DCs）——即女性伴侣被诊断患有抑郁症——与非抑郁伴侣（NDCs）进行比较。研究结果包括PAT诱导的状态情绪、瞬间关系满意度、唾液皮质醇和唾液α淀粉酶的变化。此外，我们评估了关于抑郁、关系质量、社会支持和慢性应激的心理测量基线数据。使用多层次模型对数据进行分析。
总共纳入了来自47对DCs和45对NDCs的184名个体。与NDCs相比，DCs的特点是抑郁程度更高、关系质量更低、从伴侣那里实际获得的社会支持更少以及慢性应激更高。操纵性检查导致另外排除了两对伴侣。关于情绪，与非抑郁女性相比，抑郁女性的基线得分较低，情绪增加方面无显著差异（p = 0.107）。抑郁组关系满意度的增加显著更强（p = 0.035）。此外，我们发现抑郁女性的皮质醇增加显著更强，但前提是将关系持续时间作为一个调节因素考虑在内（p = 0.022）。在女性的淀粉酶轨迹或夫妻层面上的性别依赖性交互效应方面未发现显著的组间差异（所有p > 0.05）。
指导性地参与积极的夫妻互动可能需要付出很大努力并增加心理生物学唤醒，但最终可能会给抑郁女性带来情感和社交方面的益处。虽然这些发现促使人们对指导性伴侣欣赏的治疗应用进行推测，但还需要更多关于此类干预措施有效性以及关系持续时间在抑郁和夫妻功能中的调节作用的研究。
