The antidepressant effect of cognitive reappraisal training on individuals cognitively vulnerable to depression: Could cognitive bias be modified through the prefrontal–amygdala circuits?

Abstract

Cognitive reappraisal (CR) is one of the core treatment components of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and is the gold standard treatment for major depressive disorders. Accumulating evidence indicates that cognitive reappraisal could function as a protective factor of cognitive vulnerability to depression. However, the neural mechanism by which CR training reduces cognitive vulnerability to depression is unclear. There is ample evidence that the prefrontal–amygdala circuit is involved in CR. This study proposes a novel cognitive bias model of CR training which hypothesizes that CR training may improve the generation ability of CR with altered prefrontal–amygdala functional activation/connectivity, thus reducing negative cognitive bias (negative attention bias, negative memory bias, negative interpretation bias, and/or negative rumination bias) and alleviating depressive symptoms. This study aims to (1) explore whether there is abnormal CR strategy generation ability in individuals who are cognitively vulnerable to depression; (2) test the hypothesis that CR training alleviates depressive symptoms through the mediators of cognitive bias (interpretation bias and/or rumination bias); (3) explore the neural mechanism by which CR training may enhance the ability of CR strategy generation; and (4) examine the short- and long-term effects of CR training on the reduction in depressive symptoms in individuals who are cognitively vulnerable to depression following intervention and 6 months later. The study is promising, providing theoretical and practical evidence for the early intervention of depression-vulnerable individuals.

Depression, anxiety, insomnia, stress, and the way of coping emotions as risk factors for ischemic stroke and their influence on stroke severity: A case–control study in Lebanon

“…Other studies, on the other hand, have found that habitual suppression of thoughts and emotions may contribute to depression and anxiety disorders, whereas reappraisal was associated with less depression, less negative affect, and increased life satisfaction ( 90 – 92 ). Moreover, promising theoretical and practical evidence for the early intervention of depressed or anxious individuals and preventing or relieving stress-related difficulties was discovered in these studies when evaluating the effects of emotional regulation strategies on anxiety, depression, or other pathologies by training patients in CR or even positive reappraisal ( 91 – 101 ). In light of these effects, a moderation study was conducted to investigate the potential modulating effect of these strategies.…”

Sex Differences in the Effects of Cognitive Reappraisal Training on Conditioned Fear Responses

“…This result is helpful to understand the pathological mechanism of gender emotional disorder and give some reference for improving the treatment of male and female patients with emotional disorders in clinical settings [ 41 ]. For example, careful selection of materials in exposure therapy may be needed because of women’s emotional susceptibility, and cognitive therapy for women patients may require longer clinical treatment time for their additional trials to complete extinction.…”

Reappraisal capacity is unrelated to depressive and anxiety symptoms

“…In particular, we focus on reappraisal capacity, given previous findings showing its ability to mediate the link between stress and depressive symptoms 10 , to modify physiological 11 – 13 and affective 14 – 16 responses to negative emotions. Further, reappraisal is a central component of cognitive behavioral therapy for depression 17 highlighting it’s hypothesized role in mental health disorders. In the current study, we therefore sought to examine the association between reappraisal capacity and symptoms of depression and anxiety in a well-powered sample.…”