ArticlePsychiatry investigation2020
Effects of SSRI Antidepressants on Attentional Bias toward Emotional Scenes in First-Episode Depressive Patients: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Study.
Article in Psychiatry investigation, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Emotional stimulation processing characteristics in depression: Meta-analysis of eye tracking findings.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Attentional Processing Biases in Young People With Binging and Purging Behavior.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- The impact of pandemic-related stress on attentional bias and anxiety in alexithymia during the COVID-19 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Depression and Cognitive Impairment: Current Understanding of Its Neurobiology and Diagnosis.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2022Review
- Key dimensions of post-traumatic stress disorder and endothelial dysfunction: a protocol for a mechanism-focused cohort study.BMJ open · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveAttentional biases toward emotional scenes may represent vulnerability and maintenance factors in depression. Antidepressant therapy may improve cognitive function and reduce depression, and is considered as the mechanism of action of antidepressants. Therefore, we conducted an eye-tracking test to examine whether selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants can reduce negative attentional biases and elicit clinical responses in depression.
methodsTwenty first-episode depressive patients freely viewed three types of pictures that depicted different emotional scenes (i.e., positive-control, neutral-control, and negative-control) for 4,000 ms while their eye movements were monitored. The attentional bias to different emotional scenes was assessed before and after eight weeks of SSRI treatment using the eye-tracking method. The control group included a group of healthy individuals.
resultsThe results revealed that first-episode depressive patients oriented their gaze more frequently to negative images and less to happy images, compared to controls. Importantly, the attentional bias in depressive patients was regulated after eight weeks of SSRI treatment. Patients showed an increased tendency to fixate on positive images and a decreased tendency to focus on negative images.
conclusionThis suggests that SSRI antidepressants decrease vulnerability to negative images, while having an effect on attention in respect to positive images.
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