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Depressed mood enhances anxiety to unpredictable threat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2011

O. J. Robinson ,
C. Overstreet ,
A. Letkiewicz  and
C. Grillon
O. J. Robinson*
Affiliation:
Section on Neurobiology of Fear and Anxiety, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
C. Overstreet
Affiliation:
Section on Neurobiology of Fear and Anxiety, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
A. Letkiewicz
Affiliation:
Section on Neurobiology of Fear and Anxiety, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
C. Grillon
Affiliation:
Section on Neurobiology of Fear and Anxiety, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: O. J. Robinson, Ph.D., NIMH, 15K North Drive, Bldg 15K, Room 203, MSC 2670, Bethesda, MD 20892-2670, USA. (Email: oliver.j.robinson@gmail.com)
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Abstract

Background

Depression and anxiety disorders (ADs) are highly co-morbid, but the reason for this co-morbidity is unclear. One possibility is that they predispose one another. An informative way to examine interactions between disorders without the confounds present in patient populations is to manipulate the psychological processes thought to underlie the pathological states in healthy individuals. In this study we therefore asked whether a model of the sad mood in depression can enhance psychophysiological responses (startle) to a model of the anxiety in ADs. We predicted that sad mood would increase anxious anxiety-potentiated startle responses.

Method

In a between-subjects design, participants (n=36) completed either a sad mood induction procedure (MIP; n=18) or a neutral MIP (n=18). Startle responses were assessed during short-duration predictable electric shock conditions (fear-potentiated startle) or long-duration unpredictable threat of shock conditions (anxiety-potentiated startle).

Results

Induced sadness enhanced anxiety- but not fear-potentiated startle.

Conclusions

This study provides support for the hypothesis that sadness can increase anxious responding measured by the affective startle response. This, taken together with prior evidence that ADs can contribute to depression, provides initial experimental support for the proposition that ADs and depression are frequently co-morbid because they may be mutually reinforcing.

Keywords

Anxietyco-morbiditydepressionmoodsadnessstartle reflex
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 42 , Issue 7 , July 2012 , pp. 1397 - 1407
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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