Severity of depression is inversely associated with effortful processing in unipolar depression

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

BACKGROUND: Auditory-verbal memory impairment in depression on free recall of lists of positive and neutral valence words has, predominantly, been explained as due problems with effortful processing, and further been found inversely associated with severity of depression. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether dimensional aspects of severity of depression, i.e. diminished positive affectivity (PA) and enhanced negative affectivity (NA), are more frequently associated with this impairment.METHODS: Severity of depression, PA, and NA were related to auditory-verbal retrieval on the pre-recency effect of lists of neutral valence words, which has been associated with effortful processing. This was studied, every six months, over a period of two years, in a group of 71 outpatients and clinically admitted patients with unipolar depression.RESULTS: In one assessment and in the pooled data, severity of depression was found inversely associated with retrieval on the pre-recency effect, but only in the pooled data of sufficient power, and, moreover, found to differ in effect size between gender. On the other hand, only in the pooled data diminished PA was found directly, enhanced NA was found inversely associated with retrieval on the pre-recency effect, though of insufficient power.CONCLUSIONS: Severity of depression is inversely associated with effortful processing. On the other hand, diminished PA is directly and enhanced NA is inversely associated with effortful processing, but the latter associations have to regarded as preliminary. Psychological and neuropsychological significance of these findings are discussed.