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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Further evidence of attention bias for negative information in late life depression | | Author(s) | Niall M Broomfield, Rachel Davies, K MacMahon |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 22, no 3, March 2007 |
| Pages | pp 175-180 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Depression ; Mental clarity ; Mental speed ; Evaluation ; Glasgow. |
| Annotation | Pilot research using the manual (card based) emotional Stroop paradigm shows depressed older people selectively attend negative words, whereas dementia patients do not. This study aimed to confirm this effect, using a more controlled, computerised, emotional Stroop paradigm and accounting for comorbid anxiety. 19 depressed (DEP) and 20 non-depressed control (CON) participants (all Greater Glasgow residents) completed a computerised Emotional Stroop task. This task involves colour, naming individually presented negative, positive and neutral words. Mean participant age was 72.25 years. All participants were free of significant cognitive impairment. Consistent with hypotheses, analysis of variance revealed general cognitive slowing amongst DEP, and a specific interference effect for negative words in this group, suggesting attention bias. Previous pilot data are confirmed. The emotional Stroop paradigm may have clinical potential for distinguishing geriatric depression and dementia, although as yet this is far from clear. Detailed development work including a comparison with depressed and non-depressed Alzheimer's patients will be necessary to demonstrate diagnostic validity. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070627202 A |
| Classmark | ENR: DF: DG: 4C: 9WC |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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