4.7 Article

Latent anxiety in clinical depression is associated with worse recognition of emotional stimuli

Journal

JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS
Volume 301, Issue -, Pages 368-377

Publisher

ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.01.009

Keywords

Depression; Anxiety; Episodic memory; Pattern separation; Negative affect; Emotional memory

Funding

  1. NIMH [R01MH115932, T32 MH119049]
  2. Hewitt Foundation Fellowship

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This study found that anxiety symptoms are associated with impaired recognition memory for negative stimuli, particularly with somatic and cognitive anxiety factors. This suggests the impact of anxiety symptoms on memory function.
Background: Major Depressive Disorder, characterized by cognitive affective biases, is a considerable public health challenge. Past work has shown that higher depressive symptoms are associated with augmented memory of negative stimuli. In contrast, anxiety symptoms have been associated with overgeneralization of emotional memories. Given the high comorbidity of depression and anxiety, it is critical to understand how cognitive affective biases are differentially associated with clinical symptoms. Method: We used continuous measures of depression (Beck Depression Inventory [BDI-II]) and anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory [BAI]) to evaluate an adult sample (N = 79; 18-41 years old, 58 female). Emotional memory discrimination and recognition memory were tested using an emotional discrimination task. We applied exploratory factor analysis to questions from the BAI and BDI-II to uncover latent constructs consisting of negative affect, anhedonia, somatic anxiety, and cognitive anxiety. Results: We report evidence that anxious symptoms were associated with impaired recognition of negative items after accounting for age and sex. Our exploratory factor analysis revealed that impaired negative item recognition is largely associated with somatic and cognitive anxiety factors. Limitations: Interpretations in a mixed pathology sample, especially given collinearity among factors, may be difficult. Conclusions: We provide evidence that somatic and cognitive anxiety are related to impaired recognition memory for negative stimuli. Future clinical investigations should uncover the neurobiological basis supporting the link between recognition of negative stimuli and somatic/cognitive symptoms of anxiety.

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