More rumination and less effective emotion regulation in previously depressed women with preserved executive functions

Abstract

BackgroundMajor depressive disorder is associated with very high recurrence rates, and specific vulnerability factors that increase the risk for repeated episodes should be identified. Impaired executive functions have repeatedly been found in remitted populations. The current study included both neutral and emotional executive tasks, and we expected to find impaired performance in unmedicated previously depressed women compared to controls. Furthermore, we hypothesized that the executive functions inhibition and shifting would be related to the ability to apply cognitive reappraisal and to avoid unhealthy rumination.MethodsInhibition and shifting data derived from neutral and emotional computerized tasks, and questionnaire data on emotion regulation and trait rumination, were obtained from previously depressed (n = 109) and never-depressed women (n = 64) and analyzed in independent samples t-tests. A logistic regression analysis investigated the ability of emotion regulation and rumination to predict depression vulnerability. The associations of executive functions to emotion regulation and rumination were investigated in a series of linear regression analyses. Participants on psychotropic medication were excluded from all analyses of executive performance.ResultsPreviously depressed participants, the majority of which had experienced recurrent episodes, matched control participants on both neutral and emotional executive tasks. However, significantly more rumination and expressive suppression, and less cognitive reappraisal, were found in the previously depressed group. Executive function was unrelated to rumination and emotion regulation in this sample.ConclusionsPreviously depressed women whose executive function was intact were characterized by ruminative tendencies and more frequent use of expressive suppression. Trait rumination and expressive suppression are known to increase depression risk, but were unrelated to executive functions in this population. This indicates that unhealthy emotion regulation strategies may be targeted directly in preventive interventions.

Imaging the up’s and down’s of emotion regulation in lifetime depression

“…The negative correlation between amygdala activation during down-regulation and the number of prior depressive episodes complements similar previous associations regarding depression severity (Erk et al 2010;Dillon and Pizzagalli 2013). Our results extend these and other findings on the link between recurrent depression and maladaptive habitual emotion regulation (Ehring et al 2008;Aker et al 2014), to reappraisal use in an experimental context, which might have further implications for cognitive-behavioral interventions.…”

Factor Structure of the Ruminative Response Scale and Measurement Invariance across Gender and Age among Chinese Adolescents

“…Compared with college students (Lei et al, 2017), the middle school students' academic pressure is relatively greater, which may be related with the immature mental characteristics and the lack of self-adjustment of adolescents. This result also is consistent with the clinical results (Gotham et al, 2018) and associated with the difficulties of social maladjustment, affective recognition, emotion regulation, even suicidal ideation (Sarkisian et al, 2019;Aker, Harmer, & Landrø, 2014).…”

Shedding light on the association between repetitive negative thinking and deficits in cognitive control – A meta-analysis

“…Some studies also support an association between high trait worry and deficits in cognitive control (e.g., Fox, Dutton, Yates, Georgiou, & Mouchlianitis, 2015;Stout, Shackman, Johnson, & Larson, 2015). Other studies, however, have failed to find such associations (e.g., Aker, Harmer, & Landro, 2014;Goeleven, De Raedt, Baert, & Koster, 2006). Thus, the magnitude and pattern of the association between RNT and cognitive control deficits are still unclear.…”