Distinct physiological responses to social-evaluative stress in patients with major depressive disorder reporting a history of peer victimization

Effects of peer victimization on cortical processing of social-evaluative stress in patients with major depressive disorder

“…( Sheehan et al ., 1998 ), while participants of the depressive group underwent a structured clinical interview ( Wittchen et al ., 1997 ). At the beginning of the laboratory assessment, sensors for peripheral physiological measurements (results reported elsewhere, Iffland et al ., 2023 ) and central physiological measurements were applied. Participants were tested individually in a darkened room.…”

“…All instructions for the tasks were presented on a computer screen for the participants to read. Before starting the social conditioning task, participants evaluated the neutral still images of the four actors for valence, arousal and disapproval using an on-screen visual analog scale in a pre-conditioning rating phase (for details, see Wiggert et al ., 2017 ; Iffland et al ., 2023 ; Figure 1 ). Next, participants attended to the social condition task.…”

“…Consistently, psychophysiological links between peer victimization and depression have been reported ( Vaillancourt et al ., 2013 ; Mclaughlin et al ., 2014 ; Rudolph et al ., 2016 ; Erath et al ., 2018 ; Aults et al ., 2019 ; Lambe et al ., 2019 ; Behnsen et al ., 2020 ). More specifically, a distinct biological response pattern to social stressors induced by victimization in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) has been posited ( Schiweck et al ., 2019 ; Iffland et al ., 2023 ). For instance, depressive patients reporting a history of peer victimization showed more pronounced heart rate deceleration in response to the social evaluative videos in a social conditioning paradigm than depressive patients without experiences of peer victimization ( Iffland et al ., 2023 ).…”

“…More specifically, a distinct biological response pattern to social stressors induced by victimization in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) has been posited ( Schiweck et al ., 2019 ; Iffland et al ., 2023 ). For instance, depressive patients reporting a history of peer victimization showed more pronounced heart rate deceleration in response to the social evaluative videos in a social conditioning paradigm than depressive patients without experiences of peer victimization ( Iffland et al ., 2023 ). As heart rate responses did not distinguish between socially negative and neutral evaluations, a generalized hypersensitivity to social challenges has been suggested for peer-victimized depressive patients.…”

“…In this paradigm, participants were confronted with negative evaluative stimuli as well as neutral social stimuli. Using this paradigm, recent research has demonstrated distinct heart rate responses that are related to the experience of peer victimization in both depressed patients and healthy controls ( Iffland et al ., 2018 , 2023 ). Regarding event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to this paradigm, Wiggert et al .…”