Psychologie und Sportwissenschaften
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Reduced social functioning in depression has been explained by different factors. Reduced social connectedness and prosocial motivation may contribute to interpersonal difficulties, particularly in chronic depression. In the present study, we tested whether social connectedness and prosocial motivation are reduced in chronic depression. Forty-seven patients with persistent depression and 49 healthy controls matched for age and gender completed the Inclusion of the Other in the Self Scale (IOS), the Compassionate Love Scale (CLS), the Beck Depression Inventory-II, and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. A Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with IOS and CLS as dependent variables revealed a highly significant difference between both groups. The IOS and the CLS-subscale Close Others were lower in persistent depression, whereas there was no difference in the CLS-subscale Strangers/Humanity. IOS and CLS-Close Others showed significant negative correlations with depressive symptoms. Connectedness to family members as measured by the IOS was negatively correlated with childhood trauma in patients with chronic depression. The results indicate that compassion and perceived social connection are reduced in depressed patients toward close others, but not to others in general. Implications for the treatment of depression are discussed.
Recent research has identified significant correlations between traumatic events and depression in refugees. However, few studies have addressed the role of acculturation strategies in this relationship. This study explored the relationship between cultural orientation, traumatic events and depression in female refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, and Somalia living in Germany. We expected acculturation strategies to moderate the effect of traumatic experiences on depression. The sample included 98 female refugees in Germany. The depression scale of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL) represented the dependent measure. The trauma checklists derived from the Post-traumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS) and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) as well as the Frankfurt Acculturation Scale (FRACC) were used as independent measures for traumatic events and orientation toward the host culture as well as orientation toward the culture of origin, respectively. A moderation analysis was conducted to examine whether the relationship between the number of traumatic events and depression was influenced by the women’s orientation toward the culture of origin and the host culture. We identified a significant model explaining 26.85% of the variance in depressive symptoms (Cohen’s f2 = 0.37). The number of traumatic events and the orientation toward the host culture exerted significant effects on depressive symptoms. The moderating effect was not significant, indicating that the effect of the number of traumatic events was not influenced by cultural orientation. Based on our results, orientation toward the host culture as well as traumatic experiences exert independent effects on depressive symptoms in refugees.
Background: Depression is a widespread disorder with severe impacts for individuals and society, especially in its chronic form. Current treatment approaches for persistent depression have focused primarily on reducing negative affect and have paid little attention to promoting positive affect. Previous studies have shown that metta meditation increases positive affect in chronically depressed patients. Results from previous trials provide evidence for the efficacy of a stand-alone metta meditation group treatment in combination with mindfulness-based approaches. Further research is needed to better understand the implementation of meditation practice into everyday life. Therefore, mindfulness and metta meditation in a group setting are combined with individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) into a new, low-intensity, cost-effective treatment (“MeCBT”) for chronic depression. Methods/design: In this single-center, randomized, observer-blinded, parallel-group clinical trial we will test the efficacy of MeCBT in reducing depression compared to a wait-list control condition. Forty-eight participants in a balanced design will be allocated randomly to a treatment group or a wait-list control group. Metta-based group meditation will be offered in eight weekly sessions and one additional half-day retreat. Subsequent individual CBT will be conducted in eight fortnightly sessions. Outcome measures will be assessed at four time points: before intervention (T0); after group meditation (T1); after individual CBT (T2); and, in the treated group only, at 6-month follow-up (T3). Changes in depressive symptoms (clinician rating), assessed with the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptoms (QIDS-C) are the primary outcome. We expect a significant decline of depressive symptoms at T2 compared to the wait-list control group. Secondary outcome measures include self-rated depression, mindfulness, benevolence, rumination, emotion regulation, social connectedness, social functioning, as well as behavioral and cognitive avoidance. We will explore changes at T1 and T2 in all these secondary outcome variables. Discussion: To our knowledge this is the first study to combine a group program focusing on Metta meditation with stateof-the art individual CBT specifically tailored to chronic depression. Implications for further refinement and examination of the treatment program are discussed. Trial registration: ISRCTN, ISRCTN97264476. Registered 29 March 2018 (applied on 14 December 2017)—retrospectively registered.
Background: While the efficacy of cognitive therapy (CT) has been well established for social anxiety disorder (SAD) in several randomized controlled trials, there are still large differences between trials with respect to effect sizes. The present study investigates the question of whether enhanced training and the use of behavioral experiments (BEs) increases the efficacy of traditional CT, based on verbal methods of cognitive restructuring. Methods/design: A mixed within/between conditions design will be applied, with therapists and patients being randomly allocated to one of two conditions: (1) training of CT plus BEs, (2) training of CT “as usual”. Sixty patients with the primary diagnosis of SAD will be recruited and treated in the outpatient clinic of the Department of Psychology, University of Frankfurt. To ensure adherence to therapist protocols, all therapists will be trained and supervised by the project coordinators. In addition, videotaped treatment sessions will be independently evaluated to guarantee both adherence to protocols and the quality of the intervention. Treatment effects will be assessed by independent SAD symptom ratings using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale as the primary outcome measure and self-report measures as secondary outcome measures. Discussion: The present cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) trial will be the first to clarify the contribution of BEs to the efficacy of CT in a randomized controlled design. Study results are relevant to clinical training and implementation of evidence-based treatments. Trial registration: German Clinical Trials Register International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) identifier: DRKS00014349. Trial status: recruiting.
Background: Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by an excessive preoccupation with one or more perceived flaws in one’s own appearance. Previous studies provided evidence for deficits in configural and holistic processing in BDD. Preliminary evidence suggests abnormalities at an early stage of visual processing. The present study is the first examining early neurocognitive perception of the own face in BDD by using electroencephalography (EEG). We investigated the face inversion effect, in which inverted (upside-down) faces are disproportionately poorly processed compared to upright faces. This effect reflects a disruption of configural and holistic processing, and in consequence a preponderance of featural face processing.
Methods: We recorded face-sensitive event-related potentials (ERPs) in 16 BDD patients and 16 healthy controls, all unmedicated. Participants viewed upright and inverted (upside-down) images of their own face and an unfamiliar other face, each in two facial emotional expressions (neutral vs. smiling). We calculated the early ERP components P100, N170, P200, N250, and the late positive component (LPC), and compared amplitudes among both groups.
Results: In the early P100, no face inversion effects were found in both groups. In the N170, both groups exhibited the common face inversion effects, with significantly larger N170 amplitudes for inverted than upright faces. In the P200, both groups exhibited larger inversion effects to other (relative to own) faces, with larger P200 amplitudes for other upright than inverted faces. In the N250, no significant group differences were found in face processing. In the LPC, both groups exhibited larger inversion effects to other (relative to own) faces, with larger LPC amplitudes for other inverted than upright faces. These overall patterns appeared to be comparable for both groups. Smaller inversion effects to own (relative to other) faces were observed in none of these components in BDD, relative to controls.
Conclusions: The findings suggest no evidence for abnormalities at all levels of early face processing in our observed sample of BDD patients. Further research should investigate the neural substrates underlying BDD symptomatology.
Background: Research on desired emotions revealed that individuals want to feel negative emotions if they expect these emotions to yield certain benefits. In previous studies, the pursuit of sadness (e.g., via pursuing art that evokes sadness) has been attributed to hedonic motives, i.e., to feel pleasure. We propose that in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) the pursuit of sadness may be more strongly related to self-verification motives, i.e., to sustain their sense of self through feeling sad.
Methods: Participants with MDD (n = 50) were compared to non-depressed controls (n = 50) in their desired emotional states, as indicated by selected music (sad, happy and neutral), and in their motives (hedonic vs. self-verification) for choosing sad music. Groups were also compared in their self-reported general preference for sadness and the perceived functionality of sadness.
Results: MDD participants showed a significant higher desire for sadness; more than half of them deliberately chose sad music. Whereas MDD participants had a marked preference for self-verification over hedonic motives, the reverse was true for non-depressed controls. MDD participants also agreed more strongly with self-verifying functions of sadness and expressed a stronger general preference for sadness.
Conclusion: Findings indicate that emotion regulation in MDD might be driven by self-verification motives. They point to the relevance of exploring patients’ desired emotional states and associated motives. The systematic integration of positive affect into the self-image of depressed patients might help to deemphasize the self-verifying function of sadness, thereby overcoming the depression.