Vanderbilt University, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody #552, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA.
Vanderbilt University, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody #552, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA.
J Affect Disord. 2022 Apr 15;303:233-244. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.02.028. Epub 2022 Feb 14.
Theory of mind (ToM) is a social-cognitive skill that involves the ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others. Evidence is mixed regarding the extent of ToM ability in individuals with depression.
We conducted a meta-analysis of 43 studies to investigate the strength of the association between ToM and depression.
Results indicated significant, small- to moderate impairment in ToM with a medium overall effect size (g = -0.398) in individuals with depression. Moderator analyses compared effect sizes across groups for the following variables: ToM content, process, and sample type. Additionally, meta-regression analyses tested age and gender as continuous moderators.
The cross-sectional nature of included studies limits this meta-analysis from clarifying temporal or bidirectional relations.
We discuss findings in the context of the extant developmental, cognitive, social, and clinical literatures. We also suggest several possible explanations for these findings and offer implications for intervention.
心理理论（Theory of mind，ToM）是一种社会认知技能，涉及理解他人的思想和感受的能力。关于抑郁症患者的 ToM 能力程度，证据不一。
我们对 43 项研究进行了荟萃分析，以调查 ToM 与抑郁症之间关联的强度。
结果表明，抑郁症患者的 ToM 存在显著的、小到中等程度的损伤，总体效应大小为中等（g=-0.398）。对以下变量的组间效应大小进行了调节分析：ToM 内容、过程和样本类型。此外，元回归分析测试了年龄和性别作为连续调节变量。
纳入研究的横断面性质限制了本荟萃分析对时间或双向关系的澄清。
我们在现有的发展、认知、社会和临床文献背景下讨论了这些发现。我们还对这些发现提出了几种可能的解释，并为干预提供了启示。
