White Matter Abnormalities Predict Residual Negative Self-Referential Thinking Following Treatment of Late-Life Depression with Escitalopram: A Preliminary Study

Self-referential thinking, or making sense of one's place in the internal and external environment, is necessary for adaptive functioning. The ability to reflect on past experiences and apply them to current and future experiences facilitates goal-directed behaviors (Huang et al., 2015; Northoff et al., 2006). In individuals suffering from depression, biases in processing of both internal and external stimuli (e.g., interpreting neutral stimuli as negative, assigning greater salience to negative environmental stimuli) contribute to negative representations of the past and future, as well as negative self-referential thoughts (Beck et al., 1987; Bradley et al., 1995; Groenewold et al., 2013; Harmer et al., 2009; Hilimire et al., 2015).

Source: Journal of Affective Disorders - September 11, 2018 Category: Neurology Authors: Lindsay W. Victoria, George S. Alexopoulos, Irena Ilieva, Aliza T. Stein, Matthew J. Hoptman, Naib Chowdhury, Matteo Respino, Sarah Shizuko Morimoto, Dora Kanellopoulos, Jimmy N. Avari, Faith M. Gunning Tags: Research paper Source Type: research