General, Specific and Unique Cognitive Factors Involved in Anxiety and Depressive Disorders.

General, Specific and Unique Cognitive Factors Involved in Anxiety and Depressive Disorders.

Filed under: Depression Treatment

Cognit Ther Res. 2012 Dec; 36(6): 621-633
Drost J, Van der Does AJ, Antypa N, Zitman FG, Van Dyck R, Spinhoven P

Comorbidity among anxiety and depressive disorders is the rule rather than the exception. The Integrative Hierarchical Model proposes that each of these disorders contains general (common to all), specific (common to some) and unique components. However, research into this model is limited and hampered by small (clinical) sample sizes. The aim of the present study is to investigate the incremental validity of the cognitive constructs Anxiety Sensitivity, Pathological Worry and Cognitive Reactivity to sad mood over and above the personality traits neuroticism and extraversion. Symptomatic (N = 1,111) and remitted (N = 834) patients were selected from the 2,981 participants of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA). Results revealed both specific and unique cognitive components of anxiety and depression. Across symptomatic and remitted groups, Anxiety Sensitivity was specific to social anxiety disorder and panic disorder, Aggression Reactivity was a unique component of dysthymia, and Rumination on Sadness was unique to major depressive disorder. We conclude that cognitive constructs have additional value in understanding anxiety and depressive disorders. Moreover, they prove to be more than mere epiphenomena of current disorders.
HubMed – depression

The welfare burden of adolescent anxiety and depression: a prospective study of 7500 young Norwegians and their families: the HUNT study.

Filed under: Depression Treatment

BMJ Open. 2012; 2(6):
Pape K, Bjørngaard JH, Holmen TL, Krokstad S

To examine the association between anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescents and their families and later medical benefit receipt in young adulthood.Prospective cohort study. Norwegian population study linked to national registers.Data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study 1995-1997 (HUNT) gave information on anxiety and depression symptoms as self-reported by 7497 school-attending adolescents (Hopkins Symptoms Checklist-SCL-5 score) and their parents (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score). There were 2711 adolescents with one or more siblings in the cohort.Adolescents were followed for 10 years in national social security registers, identifying long-term receipt of medical benefits (main outcome) and unemployment benefits for comparison from ages 20-29.We used logistic regression to estimate OR of benefit receipt for groups according to adolescent and parental anxiety and depression symptom load (high vs low symptom loads) and for a one point increase in the continuous SCL-5 score (range 1-4). We adjusted for family-level confounders by comparing siblings differentially exposed to anxiety and depression symptoms.Comparing siblings, a one point increase in the mean SCL-5 score was associated with a 65% increase in the odds of medical benefit receipt from age 20-29 (adjusted OR, 1.65, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.48). Parental anxiety and depression symptom load was an indicator of their adolescent’s future risk of medical benefit receipt, and adolescents with both parents reporting high symptom loads seemed to be at a particularly high risk. The anxiety and depression symptom load was only weakly associated with unemployment benefits.Adolescents in families hampered by anxiety and depression symptoms are at a substantially higher risk of medical welfare dependence in young adulthood. The prevention and treatment of anxiety and depression in adolescence should be family-oriented and aimed at ensuring work-life integration.
HubMed – depression

Does mindfulness based cognitive therapy prevent relapse of depression?

Filed under: Depression Treatment

BMJ. 2012; 345: e7194
Kuyken W, Crane R, Dalgleish T

HubMed – depression

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