Annual Research Review: An expanded account of information‐processing mechanisms in risk for child and adolescent anxiety and depression

Abstract

Background: Anxiety and depression occurring during childhood and adolescence are common and costly. While early-emerging anxiety and depression can arise through a complex interplay of 'distal' factors such as genetic and environmental influences, temperamental characteristics and brain circuitry, the more proximal mechanisms that transfer risks on symptoms are poorly delineated. Information-processing biases, which differentiate youth with and without anxiety and/or depression, could act as proximal mechanisms that mediate more distal risks on symptoms. This article reviews the literature on information-processing biases, their associations with anxiety and depression symptoms in youth and with other distal risk factors, to provide direction for further research. Methods: Based on strategic searches of the literature, we consider how youth with and without anxiety and/or depression vary in how they deploy attention to social-affective stimuli, discriminate between threat and safety cues, retain memories of negative events and appraise ambiguous information. We discuss how these information-processing biases are similarly or differentially expressed on anxiety and depression and whether these biases are linked to genetic and environmental factors, temperamental characteristics and patterns of brain circuitry functioning implicated in anxiety and depression. Findings: Biases in attention and appraisal characterise both youth anxiety and depression but with some differences in how these are expressed for each symptom type. Difficulties in threat-safety cue discrimination characterise anxiety and are understudied in depression, while biases in the retrieval of negative and overgeneral memories have been observed in depression but are understudied in anxiety. Information-processing biases have been studied in relation to some distal factors but not systematically, so relationships remain inconclusive. Conclusions: Biases in attention, threat-safety cue discrimination, memory and appraisal may characterise anxiety and/or depression risk. We discuss future research directions that can more systematically test whether these biases act as proximal mechanisms that mediate other distal risk factors.

Problematic attention processing and fear learning in adolescent anxiety: Testing a combined cognitive and learning processes model

“…Understanding the pathways by which heightened anxiety symptoms emerge at this developmental juncture can help identify new targets for early intervention. Problematic attentional processes and fear learning both play a critical role in the pathogenesis of anxiety in young people (Lau & Waters, 2016), but have largely been investigated separately. Few studies have assessed the combined effects of these cognitivelearning processes on adolescent anxiety despite adult data suggesting the contribution of multiple information-processing factors on common psychopathological conditions such as anxiety.…”

The effect of positive and negative memory bias on anxiety and depression symptoms among adolescents

“…In accord with the prediction of mood-congruent memory (Watkins, 2002), empirical studies have found a negative memory bias among adults (White, Ratcliff, & Vasey, 2015;Yang et al, 2016) and adolescents (Goldstein, Hayden, & Klein, 2015;Gomez-Ariza et al, 2013) with anxiety disorders and depression. However, inconsistent results have been reported by other studies (Lau & Waters, 2016;Mitte, 2008). For instance, Mitte (2008) concluded after a meta-analysis that no support was found for an association between anxiety and implicit memory bias.…”

“…Accordingly, the high comorbidity of anxiety and depression disorders may be due to cognitive processing errors that are shared between them (Garber & Weersing, 2010). Memory bias is one of the schema-congruent biases related the etiology and maintenance of anxiety and depression in both adults and youths (Lau & Waters, 2016). Regarding anxiety, it is postulated that an overdeveloped threat-detection system may cause people to become hypervigilant and clinically anxious (Clark & Beck, 2011;Mathews & Mackintosh, 1998;Mathews, Mackintosh, & Fulcher, 1997).…”

“…As mentioned above, the role of memory bias on anxiety is under‐researched when compared with studies on depression (Lau & Waters, ). The present study, therefore aimed to focus on the potential DF effect of both positive‐valence words and negative‐valence words on anxiety symptoms among adolescents.…”

Commentary: Information‐processing in anxiety and depression – novel targets for translational research, a reflection on Lau and Waters (2017)

“…© 2017 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12717Commentary onLau and Waters (2017) …”