Journal
JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOR THERAPY AND EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHIATRY
Volume 49, Issue -, Pages 101-111Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2014.08.005
Keywords
Attention; Cognitive bias; Modification; Depression; Prevention
Categories
Funding
- Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province of China [11113027]
- Educational Science Foundation of 12th Five-year Programming of Hunan Province of China [XJK011AXL002]
- National Social Science Foundation for the 12th Five-year Programming of Education of China [BBA130016]
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Background and objectives: Negative attentional biases are often considered to have a causal role in the onset and maintenance of depressive symptoms. This suggests that reduction of such biases may be a plausible strategy in the treatment of depressive symptoms. The present clinical randomized controlled trial examined long-term effects of a computerized attention bias modification (ABM) procedure on individuals with elevated depressive symptoms. Methods: In a double-blind study design, 77 individuals with ongoing mild to severe symptoms of depression were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) ABM training (n = 27); 2) placebo (n = 27); 3) assessment-only (n = 23). In both the ABM and placebo conditions, participants completed 8 sessions of 216-trials (1728 in total) during a 2-week period. Assessments were conducted at pre-training and post-training (0, 2, 4, 8-week, 3, 7-month follow-ups). Change in depressive symptoms and restoration of asymptomatic level were the primary outcome measures. Results: In the ABM, but not the other two conditions, significant reductions in depressive symptoms were found at post-training and maintained during the 3-month follow-up. Importantly, more participants remained asymptomatic in the ABM condition, as compared to the other two conditions, from post-training to 7-month follow-up. ABM also significantly reduced secondary outcome measures including rumination and trait anxiety, and notably, the ABM effect on reducing depressive symptoms was mediated by rumination. Limitation: Generalization of the findings may be limited because the present sample included only college students. Conclusions: The ABM effect on reducing depressive symptoms was maintained for at least 3-month duration in individuals with elevated depressive symptoms, and these results suggest that ABM may be a useful tool for the prevention of depressive symptoms. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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