Valence in the eyes: An emotion decoding profile of adults with major depressive disorder and a history of childhood maltreatment

Abstract

BackgroundIndividuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) and childhood maltreatment have been proposed to constitute a subgroup with worse illness course and outcomes. To elucidate a potential social cognitive vulnerability in this subgroup, this study compared the emotion decoding abilities of MDD patients with and without a history of childhood maltreatment.MethodsParticipants with a diagnosis of MDD were recruited from nationwide mental health organizations. Emotion decoding abilities were assessed using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, while childhood maltreatment was measured with the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire.ResultsThe MDD patients with a history of childhood maltreatment exhibited poorer emotion decoding abilities than MDD patients without such past. This difference applied specifically to the decoding of positive and negative emotions, while no group differences emerged for the decoding of neutral emotions. When specific maltreatment types were considered as predictors only emotional neglect was associated with lower emotion decoding abilities. These associations remained when adjusting for demographic and clinical covariates.ConclusionsBy indicating that emotion decoding difficulties characterize the MDD subgroup with childhood maltreatment, the findings highlight a potential vulnerability that merits further examination in terms of its developmental antecedents and prognostic relevance.

Parental depression moderates the relationship between childhood maltreatment and the recognition of children expressions of emotions

“…Contrary to our results, however, they found that participants exposed to depression and emotional abuse performed more poorly on negative valence emotions than the other groups. Similarly, in Nilsson et al.’s ( 30 ) study with a group of clinically depressed participants, those with childhood maltreatment had a worse performance with positive and negative emotional expressions in the eyes than participants without maltreatment. Very few studies have explored parents’ ability to recognize emotions through children’s faces.…”

“…A more recent study using the RMET by Nilsson et al. ( 30 ) revealed that patients with MDD and a history of childhood maltreatment had poorer emotion recognition abilities than MDD patients without such a past. The difference was observed in decoding positive and negative emotions, while no significant group differences emerged for decoding neutral emotions.…”