Faculty Collaboration Database

Gender-specific disruptions in emotion processing in younger adults with depression. Depress Anxiety 2009;26(2):182-9

Date

09/19/2008

Pubmed ID

18800371

Pubmed Central ID

PMC3013355

DOI

10.1002/da.20502

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-63849207255 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   50 Citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: One of the principal theories regarding the biological basis of major depressive disorder (MDD) implicates a dysregulation of emotion-processing circuitry. Gender differences in how emotions are processed and relative experience with emotion processing might help to explain some of the disparities in the prevalence of MDD between women and men. This study sought to explore how gender and depression status relate to emotion processing.

METHODS: This study employed a 2 (MDD status) x 2 (gender) factorial design to explore differences in classifications of posed facial emotional expressions (N=151).

RESULTS: For errors, there was an interaction between gender and depression status. Women with MDD made more errors than did nondepressed women and men with MDD, particularly for fearful and sad stimuli (Ps <.02), which they were likely to misinterpret as angry (Ps <.04). There was also an interaction of diagnosis and gender for response cost for negative stimuli, with significantly greater interference from negative faces present in women with MDD compared to nondepressed women (P=.01). Men with MDD, conversely, performed similarly to control men (P=.61).

CONCLUSIONS: These results provide novel and intriguing evidence that depression in younger adults (<35 years) differentially disrupts emotion processing in women as compared to men. This interaction could be driven by neurobiological and social learning mechanisms, or interactions between them, and may underlie differences in the prevalence of depression in women and men.

Author List

Wright SL, Langenecker SA, Deldin PJ, Rapport LJ, Nielson KA, Kade AM, Own LS, Akil H, Young EA, Zubieta JK

Author

Kristy Nielson PhD Professor in the Psychology department at Marquette University

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adaptation, Psychological
Adult
Depressive Disorder, Major
Emotions
Facial Expression
Female
Gender Identity
Humans
Male
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Reaction Time
Young Adult