Executive function, mentalizing and humor in major depression

Uekermann, J.; Channon, Shelley; Lehmkämper, Caroline; Abdel‐Hamid, Mona; Vollmoeller, Wolfgang; Daum, Irene

doi:10.1017/s1355617708080016

Cited by 124 publications

(98 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The current finding is consistent with previous studies of impairments in PT in patients with MDD (35)(36)(37). One explanation for this finding is that depressed individuals have difficulties letting go of an egocentric attitude in order to affirm the perspective of another person (38,39).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Relationship between empathic responding and its clinical characteristics in patients with major depressive disorder

Ekinci¹,

Ekinci²

2016

Dusunen Adam

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Relationship between empathic responding and its clinical characteristics in patients with major depressive disorder Objective: To our knowledge, there is no study specifically examining the relation between empathic responding and clinical features in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Our aim was to examine cognitive and affective empathic responding in patients with MDD and to explore the possible relations between clinical features and empathy. Method:The sociodemographic and clinical properties of 83 patients with major depression were recorded. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to assess severity of depression, whereas the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) was used to assess anxiety. Hopelessness level was measured by Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS). Patients' empathic ability was evaluated by using the Interpersonel Reactivity Index (IRI), and results were compared with 85 healthy controls. We used Pearson correlation and general linear model analysis to evaluate the manner in which the variables contributed to the IRI scores.Results: Perspective Taking (IRI-PT), Empathic Concern (IRI-EC), and Fantasy (IRI-FS) subscores were all substantially lower in subjects with depression than in healthy controls, while the Personal Distress (IRI-PD) subscore was higher than in healthy subjects. There were significant effects of gender on the scores of IRI-EC and IRI-FS. Lower IRI-FS and IRI-PD scores were found to be significantly related to high suicide risk in depression.Conclusion: Based on our results, patients with major depressive disorder show significantly impaired empathy measures compared to the normal population. Our findings also suggest a close relationship between suicidality and empathy in patients with MDD.Keywords: Empathy, gender, hopelessness, major depressive disorder, suicide ÖZET Majör depresif bozukluğu olan hastalarda empati yanıtı ve klinik özelliklerle ilişkisiAmaç: Bildiğimiz kadarıyla majör depresif bozukluklu hastalarda empatik cevaplarla klinik özellikler arasındaki ilişkiyi araştıran herhangi bir çalışma yoktur. Amacımız majör depresif bozukluklu hastalarda duygusal ve bilişsel empati cevabını değerlendirmek ve empatinin klinik özelliklerle olan muhtemel ilişkisini araştırmaktır. Sonuç: Bulgularımıza dayanarak depresif bozukluklu hastalarda normal popülasyona göre anlamlı olarak bozulmuş empati ölçümleri olduğu söylenebilir. Ayrıca bulgularımız depresif olgularda intihar ve empati arasında yakın bir ilişki olduğuna işaret etmektedir.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Relationship between empathic responding and its clinical characteristics in patients with major depressive disorder

Ekinci¹,

Ekinci²

2016

Dusunen Adam

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“…A number of new medical methods are being designed for early diagnosis in the most important mental pathologies and neurodegenerative diseases: new biochemical and molecular detectors, EEG, neuroimaging, ocular-macular exploration, pupillometry, exercise and gait analysis, equilibrium platforms, manual exercises, cognitive trials, memory tests, linguistic trials, etc. [27,35,[38][39][40][41]. We think laughter could also be added to that list of biomedical explorations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In mental pathologies, however, very few works have been addressed that explore the discriminative potential that laughter might contain. Quite probably, laughter is affected differently within the major neuropsychiatric pathologies, such as depression, schizophrenia, and psychoticism, as well as within dementia and neurodegenerative diseases [22,[25][26][27][28]. All of these pathologies would have in common the diminished social ability of the individual to participate in group dynamics and to progress along bonding processes, as well as the relative blocking of the hedonistic mechanisms.…”

Section: Biomedical Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Entropy of Laughter: Discriminative Power of Laughter’s Entropy in the Diagnosis of Depression

Navarro

Moral

Cuesta-Álvaro

et al. 2016

Entropy

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Abstract:Laughter is increasingly present in biomedical literature, both in analytical neurological aspects and in applied therapeutic fields. The present paper, bridging between the analytical and the applied, explores the potential of a relevant variable of laughter's acoustic signature-entropy-in the detection of a widespread mental disorder, depression, as well as in gauging the severity of its diagnostic. In laughter, the Shannon-Wiener entropy of the distribution of sound frequencies, which is one of the key features distinguishing its acoustic signal from the utterances of spoken language, has not been a specific focus of research yet, although the studies of human language and of animal communication have pointed out that entropy is a very important factor regarding the vocal/acoustic expression of emotions. As the experimental survey of laughter in depression herein undertaken shows, it was possible to discriminate between patients and controls with an 82.1% accuracy just by using laughter's entropy and by applying the decision tree procedure. These experimental results, discussed in the light of the current research on laughter, point to the relevance of entropy in the spontaneous bona fide extroversion of mental states toward other individuals, as the signal of laughter seems to imply. This is in line with recent theoretical approaches that rely on the optimization of a neuro-informational free energy (and associated entropy) as the main "stuff" of brain processing.

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“…Twenty-seven of the patients and controls also took part in a study of humor processing in major depression. The data are described elsewhere (Uekermann et al, 2008). The two groups did not differ significantly in age or general intellectual status (IQ; both p .…”

Section: Methods Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception of affective prosody in major depression: A link to executive functions?

Uekermann

Abdel‐Hamid

Lehmkämper

et al. 2008

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

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Major depression is associated with impairments of executive functions and affect perception deficits, both being linked to dysfunction of fronto-subcortical networks. So far, little is known about the relationship between cognitive and affective deficits in major depression. In the present investigation, affect perception and executive functions were assessed in 29 patients with a diagnosis of major depression (Dep) and 29 healthy controls (HC). Both groups were comparable on IQ, age, and gender distribution. Depressed patients showed deficits of perception of affective prosody, which were significantly related to inhibition, set shifting, and working memory. Our findings suggest a significant association between cognitive deficits and affect perception impairments in major depression, which may be of considerable clinical relevance and might be addressed in treatment approaches. Future studies are desirable to investigate the nature of the association in more detail. (JINS, 2008, 14, 552-561.)

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Executive function, mentalizing and humor in major depression

Cited by 124 publications

References 45 publications

Relationship between empathic responding and its clinical characteristics in patients with major depressive disorder

Relationship between empathic responding and its clinical characteristics in patients with major depressive disorder

The Entropy of Laughter: Discriminative Power of Laughter’s Entropy in the Diagnosis of Depression

Perception of affective prosody in major depression: A link to executive functions?

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