Towards a model of mood responses to sleep deprivation in depressed patients

It is hypothesized that in depressed patients diurnal variation in mood (DV) is a daily recurring phenomenon, which fails to achieve expression on all days (showing a random distribution of DVs). From this perspective a meta-analysis was performed on the raw data of earlier presented studies. The effect of total sleep deprivation (TSD) on mood was examined in 14 so-called prototypical patients, showing on three successive days either positive DVs (feeling better in the evening) or inverse DVs. It was hypothesized that under baseline conditions mood follows a monotonous course with switching points at 7 AM and 11 PM and that during the TSD night the 7-AM switch took place earlier. The position of this switch was calculated, assuming that (1) before the switch the curve ran parallel to the nightly baseline curves, and (2) after the switch the curve showed a monotonous change parallel to the daily baseline curves. The best fit between predicted and measured depression after TSD was found for a switch at 3 AM, varying the switching point during the TSD night with hourly intervals. The characteristics based on prototypical patients contributed significantly to the prediction of the morning and the afternoon depression levels after TSD in a group of 53 patients (prototypical and nonprototypical)

Nonverbal support giving induces nonverbal support seeking in depressed patients

Nonverbal support seeking behavior of 11 mildly depressed patients was studied in relation to the nonverbal support giving behavior of a female interviewer. The patients were interviewed for 20 minutes during which the interviewer gave high and low nonverbal support for 10 minutes in a cross-over design. Different behavioral elements of the patients and of the interviewer were pooled into behavioral factors. Support seeking behavior (Speaking Effort) was significantly higher when high nonverbal support giving behavior (Encouragement) was displayed (p = .05). Also, a positive relationship between Encouragement and patients' Speech was observed (p = .04). The causal relationship between depressed patients' nonverbal support seeking behavior and an interviewer's nonverbal support giving behavior underscores an interpersonal approach of depression. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Depressed patients' perceptions of facial emotions in depressed and remitted states are associated with relapse - A longitudinal study

Within the framework of interpersonal and cognitive theories of depression, we investigated whether the perception of facial emotions was associated with subsequent relapse into depression. The 23 inpatients with major depression who remitted (65 admitted patients) were studied at admission (TO), at discharge (TI), and 6 months thereafter to assess relapse. They judged schematic faces with respect to the expression of positive and negative emotions. Six patients (26.1%) relapsed. High levels of perception of negative emotions in faces, either assessed at TO or at T1, were associated with relapse. Moreover, subjects saw more negative emotions in depressed than in remitted state. Significant results were confined to ambiguous faces, i.e., faces expressing equal amounts of positive and negative emotions. Our data support the hypothesis that a bias toward the perception of others' facial emotions as negative is an enduring vulnerability factor to depression relapse and depressed mood amplifies this negative bias in perception