As the treatment of mental illness becomes less stigmatized and more available to the masses, there has been a prioritization of research regarding the physical and emotional deficits related to diseases such as major depressive disorder. With this prioritization has come a greater understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the disorder, as well as the resulting conditions and symptoms that coincide. One of these connected afflictions that has been researched as of late is the abnormal emotional reactivity that many individuals affiliated with major depressive disorder experience. There has been much debate as to whether or not this observed abnormal emotional reactivity is coexistent with depression alone or if it correlates with other symptoms such as anxiety and general negative affect as well. This question along with many more has been studied much more extensively as of late, most notably by Kaylin E. Hill and Benjamin G. Shapero, along with their respective research teams.
Kaylin E. Hill and her colleagues examined the effects of several theoretical models of abnormal emotional reactivity in depression, as detailed in their research article “Abnormal emotional reactivity in depression: Contrasting theoretical models using neurophysiological data”. In their article, they study many models that include potentiated reactivity to negatively-valenced stimuli, emotion-context insensitivity, and attenuated reactivity to positively-valenced stimuli, and their relation to depression and other symptoms with high levels of comorbidity, such as anxiety or general negative affect. Their study was the first to incorporate structural equation modeling (SEM) in relation to their neurophysiological data that consisted of ERPs. They did so in order to empirically compare the various theoretical models, allowing them to examine many different perspectives simultaneously. They combined analytic methods from clinical psychology with affective neuroscience and advanced statistical techniques in order to achieve the desired variation of results. In conducting their research, they recorded ERPs during a passive emotional viewing task. They then conducted correlational analyses which revealed only non-significant negative relationships between symptoms of major depressive disorder and emotional reactivity to both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. They then conducted SEM analyses, which revealed significantly attenuated emotional reactivity to both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli, relating to depressive symptomatology. These relationships that they revealed through SEM analysis were specific to depression and were not found to be related to anxiety or broadly internalized symptoms. They also found that the relationship was unique to reduced neural reactivity to emotional stimuli, such as pleasant or unpleasant images, but was not related to reduced neural activity in general, such as neutral images. Their data revealed support for the emotional-context insensitivity (ECI) model hypothesis, rather than other models of emotional reactivity in depression, such as negative potentiation, positive attenuation, or overall withdrawal. This was all seen as evidence for the benefits of the combination of novel techniques in order to identify relationships that would be otherwise indiscernible.
Dr. Hill and her associates aren’t the only ones who have worked towards identifying relationships between emotional reactivity and depression, as there have been many other research teams who have set out to do similar work in the name of a better understanding of depression and its symptoms. One of these research teams was Benjamin G. Shapero and his associates, who wrote “Understanding the effects of emotional reactivity on depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors: Moderating effects of childhood adversity and resilience”. In this research article, they studied emotional reactivity as a risk factor in the development of depression and suicidal ideation in young adults. In their research, they define emotional reactivity as the intensity, duration, and breadth of emotional experiences. They also go on to posit that individuals who exhibit high levels of emotional reactivity are more likely to react to stress with heightened negative affect and maladaptive interpretations of events, which is all identifiable as negative emotional reactivity. They also establish that individuals who report very intense and pliable negative emotions along with less effective coping mechanisms also report a greater number of externalized problems and higher levels of depressive symptoms experienced. They hypothesized that heightened emotional reactivity would be related to elevated levels of depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts. They also believed that experiences of childhood trauma would amplify this relationship, while the presence of resilience would diminish it. Through their research, they found that their hypotheses proved to be well-supported, as higher emotional reactivity was found to be directly related to increased occurrences of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. They also found that resilience was a significant moderator in the relationship between emotional reactivity and depressive symptoms, and that childhood maltreatment served as a significant moderator in the relationship between emotional reactivity and suicidal ideation.
Both Dr. Hill and Dr. Shapero, along with their research teams, have posed vital questions and proposed highly beneficial conclusions regarding the regulation of abnormal emotional reactivity in individuals with depression. They have established much-needed boundaries concerning the definition of emotional reactivity and the causes of abnormalities that are expressed in everyday sensation. These establishments are highly beneficial as they allow for the continuation of research regarding regulatory methods of emotional reactivity as well as the betterment of current depression treatments, shaped by the results found regarding emotional reactivity and sensitivity. The incorporation of these results into clinical settings is the ideal application of this research, along with the continuation of experimentation, as it would allow for real-world benefits to be reaped from the examination of theoretical applications. It is important to continue to make advancements in the field of mental health treatment, as millions of people suffer every day from diseases that trained professionals struggle to understand, let alone normal people just trying to get by. The translation of experimental research into applicable stages is essential in the fight against mental illness, and Dr. Hill and Dr. Shapero understand this, along with many other professionals in the field who, like them, are working towards tangible solutions to intangible problems.
Benjamin G. Shapero, Amy Farabaugh, Olga Terechina, Stephanie DeCross, Joey C. Cheung, Maurizio Fava, Daphne J. Holt, Understanding the effects of emotional reactivity on depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors: Moderating effects of childhood adversity and resilience, Journal of Affective Disorders, Volume 245, 2019, Pages 419-427, ISSN 0165-0327, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.11.033.
Kaylin E. Hill, Susan C. South, Ryan P. Egan, Dan Foti, Abnormal emotional reactivity in depression: Contrasting theoretical models using neurophysiological data, Biological Psychology, Volume 141, 2019, Pages 35-43, ISSN 0301-0511, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.12.011.
No comments:
Post a Comment