ArticlePloS one2013
Major depression is not associated with blunting of aversive responses; evidence for enhanced anxious anticipation.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cognitive distortions mediate depression and affective response to social acceptance and rejection.Journal of affective disorders · 2016Trial
- Unconditioned response to a naturally aversive stimulus is associated with sensitized defensive responding and self-reported fearful traits in a PTSD sample.Psychophysiology · 2024Article
- Deriving psychiatric symptom-based biomarkers from multivariate relationships between psychophysiological and biochemical measures.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Article
- Depression Risk Is Associated With Weakened Synchrony Between the Amygdala and Experienced Emotion.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2021Article
- Intolerance of uncertainty, depression and the error-related negativity.International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · 2020Article
- Gender differences in anxiety: The mediating role of sensitivity to unpredictable threat.International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · 2020Article
- Direct Bullying and Cyberbullying: Experimental Study of Bystanders' Motivation to Defend Victims and the Role of Anxiety and Identification With the Bully.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Startling Differences: Using the Acoustic Startle Response to Study Sex Differences and Neurosteroids in Affective Disorders.Current psychiatry reports · 2018Review
- The effect of panic disorder versus anxiety sensitivity on event-related potentials during anticipation of threat.Journal of anxiety disorders · 2018Article
- Association between neural reactivity and startle reactivity to uncertain threat in two independent samples.Psychophysiology · 2017Article
- Anxiety and Depression Symptom Dimensions Demonstrate Unique Relationships with the Startle Reflex in Anticipation of Unpredictable Threat in 8 to 14 Year-Old Girls.Journal of abnormal child psychology · 2017Article
- The role of glucocorticoids and corticotropin-releasing hormone regulation on anxiety symptoms and response to treatment.Endocrine connections · 2017Review
- Startle potentiation to uncertain threat as a psychophysiological indicator of fear-based psychopathology: An examination across multiple internalizing disorders.Journal of abnormal psychology · 2017Article
- Association between problematic alcohol use and reactivity to uncertain threat in two independent samples.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2016Article
- Aversive startle potentiation and fear pathology: Mediating role of threat sensitivity and moderating impact of depression.International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · 2015Article
- Time course of threat responding in panic disorder and depression.International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · 2015Article
- Diminished appetitive startle modulation following targeted inhibition of prefrontal cortex.Scientific reports · 2015Article
- Conditioned fear and extinction learning performance and its association with psychiatric symptoms in active duty Marines.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2015Article
- Context and explicit threat cue modulation of the startle reflex: preliminary evidence of distinctions between adolescents with principal fear disorders versus distress disorders.Psychiatry research · 2014Article
- Increased fear-potentiated startle in major depressive disorder patients with lifetime history of suicide attempt.Journal of affective disorders · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
According to the emotion-context insensitivity (ECI) hypothesis, major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a diminished ability to react emotionally to positive stimuli and with blunting of defensive responses to threat. That defensive responses are blunted in MDD seems inconsistent with the conceptualization and diagnostic nosology of MDD. The present study tested the ECI hypothesis in MDD using a threat of shock paradigm. Twenty-eight patients with MDD (35.5±10.4 years) were compared with 28 controls (35.1±7.4 years). Participants were exposed to three conditions: no shock, predictable shock, and unpredictable shock. Startle magnitude was used to assess defensive responses. Inconsistent with the ECI hypothesis, startle potentiation to predictable and unpredictable shock was not reduced in the MDD group. Rather, MDD patients showed elevated startle throughout testing as well as increased contextual anxiety during the placement of the shock electrodes and in the predictable condition. A regression analysis indicated that illness duration and Beck depression inventory scores explained 37% (p<.005) of the variance in patients' startle reactivity. MDD is not associated with emotional blunting but rather enhanced defensive reactivity during anticipation of harm. These results do not support a strong version of the ECI hypothesis. Understanding the nature of stimuli or situations that lead to blunted or enhanced defensive reactivity will provide better insight into dysfunctional emotional experience in MDD.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.