Akhapkin Roman Vitalievich, Volel Beatrisa Albertovna, Shishorin Rodion Mikhailovich, Ustyuzhanin Dmitry Vladimirovich, Petelin Dmitry Sergeevich
V.P. Serbsky National Medical Research Center of Psychiatry and Narcology, Moscow, Russia.
I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia.
Neurol Ther. 2021 Jun;10(1):225-234. doi: 10.1007/s40120-021-00231-w. Epub 2021 Feb 8.
Processing of emotional stimuli is altered in patients with depression. The present feasibility study investigated the features of emotional information recognition in people with depressive disorders and how these differ from individuals without depression to determine whether response times could potentially be used as a diagnostic marker to identify individuals at high risk of depression and as an indicator of antidepressant medication response.
The study recruited 32 individuals, 16 with single or recurrent depressive episodes and 16 control subjects without depression. Patients with depression received 8 weeks of antidepressant therapy. The severity of depressive symptoms at baseline and their changes on prescribed therapy were assessed using the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). The processing of emotional information was assessed using the computerized Penn Emotion Recognition Task (ER-40).
The two groups were well matched in terms of age and gender. There was no difference between the groups in their ability to correctly recognize happy or sad emotional facial expressions, but the average time patients with depression took to recognize a happy face was significantly longer than controls. In addition, they were more likely to misinterpret facial expressions as non-emotional. In patients with depression, the mean MADRS total score decreased from 26.3 ± 4.4 at baseline to 11.1 ± 8.9 at 8 weeks, a reduction of 57.8%. The proportion of responders with greater than 50% reduction in their baseline MADRS total score was 64.3%. Antidepressive treatment was associated with a reduction in the mean time required for recognition of a happy face (P < 0.05).
Patients with depression are slower to identify positive emotions but have a similar time to recognition of negative emotions as patients without depression. The greater time required for recognition of happiness distinguished the patients with depression from control subjects, and was also the only parameter that showed an improvement with antidepressant therapy, suggesting a specific relationship of this parameter with the depressive state.
抑郁症患者对情绪刺激的处理会发生改变。本可行性研究调查了抑郁症患者情绪信息识别的特征，以及这些特征与非抑郁症患者的差异，以确定反应时间是否有可能作为诊断标志物来识别抑郁症高危个体，并作为抗抑郁药物治疗反应的指标。
该研究招募了32名个体，其中16名患有单次或复发性抑郁发作，16名无抑郁症的对照受试者。抑郁症患者接受了8周的抗抑郁治疗。使用蒙哥马利-Åsberg抑郁评定量表（MADRS）评估基线时抑郁症状的严重程度及其在规定治疗中的变化。使用计算机化的宾夕法尼亚情绪识别任务（ER-40）评估情绪信息的处理情况。
两组在年龄和性别方面匹配良好。两组在正确识别快乐或悲伤情绪面部表情的能力上没有差异，但抑郁症患者识别快乐面孔的平均时间明显长于对照组。此外，他们更有可能将面部表情误解为无情感的。在抑郁症患者中，MADRS总分平均值从基线时的26.3±4.4降至8周时的11.1±8.9，降低了57.8%。基线MADRS总分降低超过50%的反应者比例为64.3%。抗抑郁治疗与识别快乐面孔所需的平均时间减少相关（P<0.05）。
抑郁症患者识别积极情绪的速度较慢，但识别消极情绪的时间与非抑郁症患者相似。识别快乐所需的更长时间将抑郁症患者与对照受试者区分开来，并且也是唯一显示抗抑郁治疗有改善的参数，表明该参数与抑郁状态存在特定关系。
