This study will determine how people with depression differ from healthy people in brain activity and interpreting emotions, both before and after receiving a psychotherapy treatment.
Major depressive disorder is a serious form of depression that may be treated with psychotherapy. However, up to 40% of adults with depression do not show reduced symptoms when treated with cognitive therapy or behavioral activation (BA), two common forms of psychotherapy. Certain indicators are generally linked with a successful outcome of psychotherapy-demographic and clinical characteristics, comorbidity, and treatment adherence-but no factors reliably predict outcomes of psychotherapy in individuals. This study will test whether two characteristics related to the way people process emotions, affective asymmetry and affective reactivity, can predict whether people with depression will improve with BA therapy. Both depressed and healthy participants will be recruited for this study. Participation in this study will last 31 weeks. All participants will complete baseline assessments at Weeks 1 and 2. Depressed participants will then begin receiving 16 weekly sessions of BA therapy. All participants will be assessed again after 8, 16, 17, and 28 weeks. Assessments will include the following: a urine toxicology screening; interviews on mental and physical health, family and childhood experiences, and current mood and functioning; computer tasks; recordings of electroencephalography (EEG) activity; recordings of reaction to a startle probe; recordings of electromyography (EMG) activity; recordings of electrodermal activity (EDA); and measurement of blood pressure.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
77
Behavioral Activation included up to 16 weekly 50 minute psychotherapy sessions using BA (Addis \& Martell, 2004; Martell et al., 2001, 2010). Techniques included functional analyses to identify the antecedent and consequential aspects of low mood, and interventions such as monitoring daily activities, assessing pleasure/satisfaction and competence achieved via activities, assigning tasks that induce mastery or pleasure, and reducing skill deficits. Clinicians included postdoctoral fellows in clinical psychology (n = 2) or licensed clinical psychologists (n = 2).
Analyses of Covariance to Test for Group Differences (MDD vs. Healthy) on Clinician-rated Depression Severity After 16 Weeks of Behavioral Activation Psychotherapy, Controlling for Baseline Depression Severity.
The Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Clinician Rated measure (IDS-C; Rush, Giles, Schlesser, Fulton, Weissenburger, Burns, 1986; Rush, Carmody, \& Reimitz, 2000; Rush, Trivedi, Ibrahim, Carmody, Arnow, Klein, et al., 2003) is a 30-item measure that reflects the presence and severity of DSM-IV symptoms of depression. The item scores on this scale are summed to create a total score. Scores range from 0 (minimum score, reflecting no symptoms) to 84 (maximum score, reflecting highest severity). Scores between 0-11 are interpreted as 'no depression'; scores between 12-23 are interpreted as 'mild severity'; scores between 24-36 are interpreted as 'severe'; and total scores between '47-84' are interpreted as 'very severe'.
Time frame: Week 16
Analyses of Covariance to Test for Group Differences (MDD vs. Healthy) on Patient-rated Depression Severity After 16 Weeks of Behavioral Activation Psychotherapy, Controlling for Baseline Depression Severity.
The Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology, Self-Rated measure (IDS-SR; Rush et al., 1986, 2003) is a 30-item measure of depression severity completed by the participant. The item scores on this scale are summed to create a total score (range from 0 (no symptoms) to 84 (highest severity). The item scores on this scale are summed to create a total score (range from 0 (minimum score reflecting no symptoms) to 84 (maximum score, reflecting highest severity). Severity of depression is reflected by total score (e.g., scores between 0-13 is interpreted as 'no depression', scores between 14-25 are interpreted as 'mild severity'; total scores between 26-48 are interpreted as 'severe', and total scores between '49-84' are interpreted as 'very severe'.
Time frame: Week 16
Pre-treatment Frontal EEG Asymmetry Score as a Predictor of Negative Affect at Post-treatment
Frontal EEG asymmetry scores were calculated over the midfrontal sites, subtracting the natural log of the alpha power of the electrode in the left hemisphere (F3 or F7) from that of the right frontal electrode (F4 or F8), creating one summary alpha asymmetry variable. The absolute value of this difference score was taken. Using the natural log transformation is used in EEG asymmetry research as EEG power appears to be positively skewed. A higher score thus reflected greater relative left versus right frontal activation (e.g., relatively higher right alpha activity).
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Time frame: Week 0
A Two Level Hierarchical Model Testing the Association Between Negativity Bias Change During BA Treatment With Patient-reported Depression Severity (Week 16 IDS-SR).
The negativity bias, characterized as the tendency to evaluate unpleasant versus pleasant information as more important, was measured using a computer task. Sitting in front of the computer, participants viewed emotionally evocative images and assigned their evaluations of how the intensity of these emotional images using a grid. The grid is comprised of a matrix, with 5 points on the horizontal axis representing the positivity seen in the image (0=not at all, 4 = extremely positive) by 5 points on a vertical axis representing the negativity seen in the image (0=not at all, 4 = extremely negative) matrix. The dimensional variable, negativity bias, is calculated as the difference in the mean ratings of very unpleasant images minutes the positive ratings of the very pleasant images. The Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology, Self-Rated (IDS-SR; Rush et al., 1986, 2003) is a 30-item measure of depression severity provided by the participant.
Time frame: Weeks 0-16