Sensitivity to Social Exclusion in Major Depressive Disorder Predicts Therapeutic Outcome after Inpatient Treatment

Reward prospect improves inhibitory control in female university students with a history of childhood sexual and physical abuse

“…Supporting this theory, maltreated youths performed generally faster than the non-maltreated comparison group in another study despite being insensitive to monetary incentive (Guyer et al, 2006), also suggesting increased ingratiating effects. Moreover, as rates of maltreatment history in depressed patients are high (Negele, Kaufhold, Kallenbach, & Leuzinger-Bohleber, 2015), Mueller, De Rubeis, Lange, Pawelzik, and Sutterlin (2016) demonstrated that clinically depressed participants who were more sensitive to social exclusion also benefitted more from psychotherapy and had larger improvements on their depression scores after ~2 months of inpatient treatment. This suggests that ingratiating behaviors may influence performance, also within a therapeutic context.…”

Neural correlates of ostracism in transgender persons living according to their gender identity: a potential risk marker for psychopathology?

“…Comparison (cisgender) participants (CM, CW) were recruited by word-of-mouth. Given recent associations of depression with social exclusion sensitivity in the cyberball task (Mueller et al 2016) and a high prevalence of depression in transgender persons (Heylens et al 2014), all participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI, Beck et al 1988) as well as the Spielberger State/Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI, Spielberger et al 1970). Although a one-way ANOVA indicated a statistically significant group difference in depression scores [ F (3,69) = 4.07, p = .010], follow-up post-hoc tests showed that TW had only marginally higher BDI scores than CM ( p = .054), with no differences between any other groups (all p s > 0.289) (cf.…”

“…In the standard variant, the participant is made to believe they are playing against two (or three) other real people who are connected to them (for example through the internet) (Williams and Jarvis, 2006). From a clinical perspective, initial sensitivity to social rejection in the cyberball task predicts therapeutic outcome in depressed patients (Mueller et al, 2016), supporting a strong role for social exclusion in mental health (Meyer-Lindenberg and Tost, 2012).…”

Rejection sensitivity as a vulnerability marker for depressive symptom deterioration in men

“…Rejection Sensitivity predicts the course and outcome of depression, as it has been shown to be associated with greater severity and duration of current major depressive episodes [ 35 ], increased propensity toward depression over time [ 36 ], and with poor psychosocial outcome [ 37 – 38 ]. Sensitivity to simulated social rejection is positively correlated with treatment outcome in major depression [ 39 ], suggesting outcome-related associations of RS, as depressed patients with higher RS benefited more from treatment, possibly as a function of the need to socially re-integrate [ 40 ]. The associations between RS, depression, and psychosocial outcome suggest a role of RS for relapse after a depressive episode.…”