William Mellick1, Carla Sharp2, Monique Ernst3. 1. Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Charleston, SC 29403, United States. 2. University of Houston, Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, United States. 3. National Institute of Mental Health/NIH, 15 K North Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892, United States.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Interpersonal trust behavior is an important target for the identification and treatment of psychiatric disorders with interpersonal dysfunction. Adolescent depression is a highly interpersonal disorder marked by impaired social interactions. However, trust has received little empirical attention. The examination of reward-related decision-making using behavioral economic methods is a relatively novel approach for studying trust in adolescent depression. The present study employed a modified trust game to examine whether depressive adolescents exhibited perturbed reward-related decision-making in social and/or nonsocial contexts. METHODS: One-hundred and thirty adolescent girls (65 depressive, 65 healthy comparisons) played a modified trust game under two conditions, interpersonal risk-taking (trust) and general risk-taking (lottery), and completed self-report psychopathology measures. RESULTS: Three-way repeated measures ANCOVA analyses revealed a significant group x game interaction such that while the depressive group invested more across trials in the trust game they invested similarly to healthy comparisons in the lottery condition. DISCUSSION: Findings highlight the interpersonal nature of adolescent depression. Future research may help determine whether increased trust behavior is characteristic of depression in adolescent girls. Behavioral economic games, like the trust game, may serve as valuable therapeutic tools for improving social interaction style among depressive adolescents.
INTRODUCTION: Interpersonal trust behavior is an important target for the identification and treatment of psychiatric disorders with interpersonal dysfunction. Adolescent depression is a highly interpersonal disorder marked by impaired social interactions. However, trust has received little empirical attention. The examination of reward-related decision-making using behavioral economic methods is a relatively novel approach for studying trust in adolescent depression. The present study employed a modified trust game to examine whether depressive adolescents exhibited perturbed reward-related decision-making in social and/or nonsocial contexts. METHODS: One-hundred and thirty adolescent girls (65 depressive, 65 healthy comparisons) played a modified trust game under two conditions, interpersonal risk-taking (trust) and general risk-taking (lottery), and completed self-report psychopathology measures. RESULTS: Three-way repeated measures ANCOVA analyses revealed a significant group x game interaction such that while the depressive group invested more across trials in the trust game they invested similarly to healthy comparisons in the lottery condition. DISCUSSION: Findings highlight the interpersonal nature of adolescent depression. Future research may help determine whether increased trust behavior is characteristic of depression in adolescent girls. Behavioral economic games, like the trust game, may serve as valuable therapeutic tools for improving social interaction style among depressive adolescents.
Entities:
Keywords:
MDD; Major Depressive Disorder; adolescence; decision-making; social reward
Authors: Andreas Hula; Michael Moutoussis; Geert-Jan Will; Danae Kokorikou; Andrea M Reiter; Gabriel Ziegler; E D Bullmore; Peter B Jones; Ian Goodyer; Peter Fonagy; P Read Montague; Raymond J Dolan Journal: Comput Psychiatr Date: 2021-10-14