Previous Support for the Relationship between Depression and Rumination

1
The Role of Ruminative Response Style in the
Relationship between Inhibitory Deficits and
Depression Stephanie L. McMurrich, M.S. Sheri
L. Johnson, Ph.D.
Broad Aims of Study
Participants

• 92 undergraduates at the University of Miami
• 51 had no history of depression (18 males, 33
  females)
• 16 to 22 years of age (M18.78 , SD 1.08)
• 41 had a history of depression (13 males, 28
  females).
• 17 to 40 years of age (M19.83 (SD 3.86).
• No significant differences between groups on
  demographics or treatment history

• A number of studies have documented the
  relationship between dispositional rumination and
  depression. This relationship is known as the
  response styles theory of depression.
• This study sought to expand upon the small
  literature examining how dispositional rumination
  relates to depression history.
• To better understand mood-state dependent
  rumination, a secondary goal was to provide a
  robust interpersonal mood challenge before
  examining rumination.
• Finally, this study examined whether rumination
  mediated links between the ability to inhibit
  attention to emotionally-valenced material and
  depression vulnerability.

Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for
Depression History as a Predictor of
Dispositional Rumination (N 89)
Negative Affective Priming Paradigm
Method

• Participants were recruited based on high and low
  scores on the Inventory to Diagnose Lifetime
  Depression (Zimmerman Coryell, 1987).
• Session One
• SCID modules for depression, mania, psychosis and
  substance abuse/dependence
• Mood induction using film clips
• Negative Affective Priming Task
• Questionnaires/Parental contact information
• Session Two (approximately one month later)
• Mood questionnaires
• Interpersonal threat involving reading critical
  letter from parent (mood challenge for
  state-rumination)
• Post letter mood questionnaires
• 4-6 hours post letter mood questionnaires

Previous Support for the Relationship between
Depression and Rumination

• Nondepressed individuals who engaged in an
  active, distracting task after a negative mood
  induction experienced a reduction in sadness,
  whereas people who engaged in a passive
  ruminative task experienced little reduction in
  sadness (Morrow Nolen-Hoeksema, 1990).
• High rumination scores predicted the onset of a
  depressive episode over an 18-month follow-up
  period (Just Alloy, 1999).
• Among college undergraduates, rumination was
  significantly related to lifetime episodes of
  dysphoria (Roberts et al, 1998).
• Only one study to date has examined the
  relationship between a diagnosable history of
  depression and rumination (Joormann, 2004).

• Overall F for Final Model 13.52
• plt .05 plt.01

Results Summary
Conclusions, Limitations, Future Directions

• Checks of the Letter Paradigm
• No group differences in objective negativity of
  the letters.
• Across groups, there were no significant changes
  in negative affect post letter
• and 4-6 hours after reading the letter.
• Relationship between depression history and
  rumination following an interpersonal threat
• There was not a significant relationship between
  depression history and rumination following the
  reading of a critical letter from a parent.
• As this paradigm did not appear to be effective,
  the major focus of the analyses will be on the
  standard dispositional rumination.
• Relationship between dispositional rumination,
  depression and inhibition
• Reliability of the NAP as measured by consistency
  across trials was very poor. Given this, it is
  not surprising that inhibition failed to show any
  significant correlations with other key
  variables.
• Analysis of variance indicated that there was not
  a significant relationship between depression
  history and the ability to inhibit attention to
  negative information.
• Hierarchical multiple regression analyses
  indicated that there was not a significant
  relationship between rumination and the ability
  to inhibit attention to negative information.
• Relationship between dispositional rumination and
  depression history
• After controlling for baseline mood and anxiety
  symptoms, hierarchical multiple regression
  analyses indicated that a history of depression
  significantly predicted rumination and accounted
  for a 9 increase in the variance explained.

Negative Affective Priming Paradigm (NAP)

• Two of the innovative facets of this study design
  performed poorly. First, although a goal was to
  examine rumination in the context of a
  significant interpersonal threat, the letters
  from parents had very little effect on mood or
  rumination. This may be due to the fact that it
  was previously heard criticism and thus was not
  surprising to the participants.
• Future studies of state-rumination should
  consider using a more powerful threatening
  stimulus (within ethical constraints), drawing on
  previously used paradigms for manipulating
  threat, such as learned helplessness paradigms.
• A second goal was to examine the relationship
  between depression history, rumination and
  inhibition. Unfortunately, the measure of
  inhibition had extremely poor reliability and
  hence, not surprisingly, a lack of significant
  correlations with other variables. Future studies
  of inhibition should create a more reliable
  measure of inhibition of attention to negative
  stimuli. For example, particularly in college
  samples, it may be important to design a negative
  priming paradigm that can be checked for
  accuracy.
• Nonetheless, positive findings were that
  depression history significantly predicted
  dispositional rumination.
• This study is important as it contributes to a
  small literature suggesting that individuals with
  a depression history also have a dispositional
  tendency to ruminate. Given this vulnerability it
  is clinically important to teach individuals with
  a depression history more adaptive means of
  responding to their negative mood in order to
  avoid the onset of depressive episodes.

• The NAP Allows for the strength of inhibitory
  processes to be measured.
• Participants are shown two adjectives on a
  computer screen, one in red and one
• in blue. They are told to focus on the blue
  words (target words) and indicate
• whether the word describes them or not and
  ignore the red words (distractor
• words).
• Participants are presented with a prime trial
  (trial 1) in which they are asked to ignore
  certain words or objects and a subsequent test
  trial (trial 2) in which the ignored words or
  objects are presented as probes (See diagram on
  right).
• Therefore, the negative priming effect is defined
  as a slower response when the (previously
  ignored) distractor from a previous trial becomes
  the target.

• Relationship between Rumination, Depression and
  Inhibition

• Several researchers have suggested that deficits
  in the inhibition of attention may play an
  important role in ruminative tendencies
  (Joormann, 2004 Hertel, 1997 Linville, 1996).
• A decreased ability to inhibit information flow
  may allow unwanted thoughts to enter working
  memory, may impede the deletion of irrelevant
  thoughts and permit previously rejected thoughts
  to return.
• Several studies have indicated that priming
  effects (see NAP definition to the right) are
  related to inhibitory proficiency less negative
  priming can indicate deficient inhibitory
  functioning (e.g. Tipper, 1985 Joormann, 2004,
  2005).
• Lack of ability to inhibit attention to negative
  self-referential words has been related to
  rumination (Joormann, 2005) and lifetime
  diagnosis of depression and dysphoria (Joormann,
  2004).

Interpersonal Threat Paradigm

• A goal of this study was to examine rumination
  in response to a threatening
• stimulus, using a paradigm similar to one
  created by Hooley (2001).
• Parents wrote critical letters to their child
  that were at least ten sentences in
• and described a behavior of their childs
  that was of concern.
• To increase the homogeneity of letters all
  parents were provided with a list of
• common concerns that they could choose from,
  as well as an example letter.
• For ethical reasons, parents were instructed
  to choose a concern that had
• previously been expressed to their child.