Childhood maltreatment, especially emotional abuse and neglect, represents a risk factor for severe, early-onset, treatment-resistant depression with a chronic course.

Current claims about the relationship between depression and crying lack a robust empirical foundation. Assessment instruments and diagnostic systems for mood disorders are inconsistent in how they handle crying as a symptom. Further work to investigate the causes and the context of crying in depressed patients is needed.

BackgroundThere is ample evidence showing that childhood maltreatment (CM) is a risk factor for the development of depression in adulthood. However, little is known about the psychological processes mediating this relationship. This study used a large community sample to investigate the mediating role of emotional, cognitive and/or interpersonal dysfunctions on the one hand and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms on the other hand.MethodsOne thousand twenty seven participants of a community sample filled out an online survey. Mediation analyses were computed via linear structural equation modelling.ResultsResults showed a significant mediation of the association between CM and adult depression via emotional impairments, depressogenic attribution style and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. Our study design was cross-sectional and therefore did not allow testing temporal precedence of mediators and causality. Data was collected retrospectively, a confounding effect of current depressive symptoms on retrospective recall of CM therefore cannot be ruled out.ConclusionsThe a priori mediation model showed a good fit with the data. The model suggests promising objectives for further research on CM-related depression and potential treatment targets in the future.

The present study aimed to investigate the everyday emotional dynamics of depressed individuals, especially the role of emotional inertia, emotional context insensitivity, and emotional variability and instability. Using ecological momentary assessment, 40 currently depressed individuals and 40 healthy controls reported on their current emotional state and current activities 10 times a day for 4 consecutive days. There were no differences in the dynamics of positive affect (PA) between depressed and healthy subjects. Depressed participants' negative affect (NA), however, was found to be more inert than in healthy controls, while at the same time being more variable and more reactive to positive events. There was also an association between emotional instability and depression, but this was rendered nonsignificant when analyses were controlled for emotional variability. Altogether, emotional dynamics of NA appear to be more prominently disturbed in depression compared to PA. Results support earlier findings on NA emotional variability as well as inertia in depressed patients. In addition, there was some evidence for a mood brightening effect in depression.

Background Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often report intrusive memories that appear to lack the appropriate spatio-temporal context. Objective We examined whether focusing on the spatio-temporal context of aversive autobiographical memories reduces negative emotions, appraisals, and re-experiencing symptoms. Methods We recruited 109 healthy adults and had them rate emotionality, vividness, and re-experiencing of an aversive autobiographical memory. Furthermore, we assessed automatic associations of idiosyncratic memory triggers with the concepts ‘past’ vs. ‘now’, and self-reported sense of memory closure and distancing. To manipulate spatio-temporal memory (re-)organization, the experimental group ( n = 53) performed a lifeline exercise in virtual reality (VR), where participants symbolically placed memory triggers along a path representing their own personal life story. The control group ( n = 56) completed a non-personalized VR task. Results We found a marked decrease in negative emotions, negative appraisals, and re-experiencing in the following week, but on average, the lifeline exercise was not superior to the control condition. However, those in the lifeline group with stronger trigger-past associations subsequently exhibited a more pronounced reduction in re-experiencing. Also, participants with a higher subjective sense of memory distancing reported less re-experiencing. Conclusions The findings lend tentative support for theoretical assumptions about PTSD, but the potential causal role of automatic associations with spatio-temporal information remains to be clarified.

This paper presents a mobile treatment system developed as part of the FP7 ICT4Depression project. The project targets the efficient treatment of minor and major depression. To this end, treatments that have traditionally been administered via relatively simple web-based interfaces, have been translated for use on a smart phone. The delivery of the treatments is supported by an evidence-based approach to patient progression and treatment adherence monitoring. The mobile system consists of a graphical user interface, biomedical sensors to measure the patient's affective state, a medication adherence system, an activity monitor and a server based reasoning system to combine the various sensor data streams and obtain abstracted information relating to patient status and progression, thereby allowing for appropriate feedback and advice for both patient and medical staff.