Executive control and emotion regulation in remitted depression

Abstract

Depression is the worldwide leading burden of disease and one of the most prevalent psychological disorders. Causes and mechanisms of depression are insufficiently understood. The ability to regulate emotion is important, and emotional activation can obstruct cognitive control processing. In a series of objective assessments of “neutral” and “emotional” information processing as well as self-reported emotion regulation, this thesis investigates cognitive control processes and emotion regulation in people who have recovered from depression.

Despite intact executive functions the remitted participants were prone to depressive rumination and to the use of relatively unhealthy emotion regulation strategies. The results indicated that good executive functioning was not sufficient to protect against unhealthy cognitive-emotional processes or against depression. Although recovery from depression is generally associated with less effective executive function, many individuals who recover from depression do not have executive impairments. Approaches to prevention and treatment will be most effective is they are adapted individual needs.