Saturday, March 6, 2010

Adaptive and maladaptive rumination

Joormann, J., Dkane, M., & Gotlib, I. H. (2006). Adaptive and maladaptive components of rumination? Diagnostic specificity and relation to depressive biases. Behavior Therapy, 37, 269–280.

Abstract

The present study investigated the validity of the two-factor solution of items selected from the Rumination Scale of the Response Style Questionnaire proposed by Treynor, Gonzalez, and Nolen-Hoeksema (2003). In the first part of this study we used samples of currently depressed (MDD), formerly depressed (FD), socially anxious (SP), and healthy control participants to examine whether the brooding and reflective pondering components differentiate participants with an anxiety disorder from participants with depression. In the second part of this study we examined whether these components of rumination were differentially related to cognitive biases in depression. Overall, the MDD group exhibited higher brooding scores than did all other groups; SP and FD groups did not differ from each other but obtained higher brooding scores than did the control participants. Only the MDD and the control groups differed on the reflective pondering factor. Importantly, brooding and reflective pondering were differentially related to cognitive biases. Specifically, the correlation between brooding/reflective pondering and memory bias was not significant when depressive symptoms were partialed out. The correlation between brooding and attentional bias for sad faces, however, remained significant even when current depressive symptoms were taken into account. In sum, our results support the formulation that rumination is composed of an adaptive reflective pondering factor and a maladaptive brooding factor.

Rumination and distraction

Trask, P. C., & Sigmon, S. T. (1999). Ruminating and distracting: The effects of sequential tasks on depressed mood. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 23, 231-246.

Abstract

Response styles theory (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1987) provided the impetus for recent research efforts investigating the effects of rumination and distraction on depressed mood. This study elaborates on previous research by examining the sequential effects of engaging in ruminating and distracting tasks. Results from two studies indicated that initially engaging in a ruminating task maintained postinduction levels of dysphoric mood, whereas initially engaging in a distracting task reduced levels of dysphoric mood. More important, however, were the effects of task order on mood. When particip ants engaged in a distracting task following a ruminating task, dysphoric mood, which had been maintained with a ruminating task, was reduced to premoodinduction levels. Of equal importance, individuals who ruminated after distracting maintained their current mood and did not report an increase in depressed mood. In the second study, engaging in sequential rumination tasks further prolonged depressed mood, whereas engaging in sequential distraction tasks reduced depressed mood. The results suggest that, although engaging in a rumination task maintains depressed mood and engaging in a distraction task reduces it, the order in which these tasks are performed is also important. The implications of these results for response styles theory are discussed.

Rumination, adolescents and depression

Kuyken, W., Watkins, E., Holden,E., & Cook, W. (2006). Rumination in adolescents at risk for depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 96, 39-47.

Abstract

Background: Identifying high-risk adolescents and understanding first onset of depression in adolescence are important steps in reducing depression morbidity. There is compelling evidence that the personality dimension neuroticism is a risk factor for depression, but the vulnerability mechanism is not yet understood. This study examined the association between a hypothesized psychological vulnerability factor (rumination) and depression in adolescents.
Methods: A behavioural high-risk design differentiated a sample of 326 adolescents (aged 14–18) as either at normal or high risk for depression (operationalized as scores on a measure of neuroticism).

Results: Adolescents at risk for depression reported more rumination than adolescents not at risk. We hypothesized that the well established relationship between neuroticism and depression would be mediated by rumination in cross-sectional analyses, and our findings suggest that rumination partially mediated this relationship.
Conclusions: The findings tentatively suggest that neuroticism acts as a risk factor for adolescent onset depression through increased tendency towards brooding rumination (i.e. moody self-evaluative dwelling) in response to depressed mood. Prospective and experimental research examining this mechanism is required.

Rumination and memory

Moulds, M. L., Kandris, E.,& Williams, A. D. (2007). The impact of rumination on memory for self-referent material. Memory, 15, 814-821.

Abstract

Previous findings have linked rumination to the enhanced retrieval of negative memories (Lyubormirsky, Caldwell, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1998) and overgeneral autobiographical memories (Watkins & Teasdale, 2004) in depression. However, little is known of the impact of rumination on the encoding of information, and in particular, self-referent information. This study examined the impact of rumination on selfreferent encoding in high (BDI-II]13) and low (BDI-II55) dysphoric participants. Participants were randomly allocated to a rumination or distraction condition, and then completed the experimental task in which they rated a series of adjectives (positive, negative) as either self- or other-descriptive, and later received a memory test for the adjectives. Not surprisingly, high-dysphoric participants endorsed more negative and less positive adjectives as self-descriptive. Counter to our prediction, high-dysphoric participants allocated to the rumination condition did not endorse more negative adjectives as selfreferent. However, consistent with our hypothesis, high-dysphoric participants who ruminated recalled more negative self-referent words, after controlling for the proportion of words endorsed as selfdescriptive. The findings demonstrate that rumination results in enhanced memory for negative, selfrelated material, and raises the possibility that this may serve as another pathway via which the negative evaluations of the self observed clinically in depression are maintained.

Worry versus rumination

Hong, R. Y. (2007). Worry and rumination: Differential associations with anxious and depressive symptoms and coping behavior. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 277–290.

Abstract

Worry and rumination are closely allied cognitive processes that impact on the experience of anxious and depressive symptoms. Using a prospective design, this study examined overlapping and distinct features of worry and rumination in relation to symptoms and coping behavior in a nonclinical sample of Singaporean college students. Worry and rumination were highly correlated, but they retained distinct components that predicted anxious and depressive symptoms differentially within and across time. Specifically, worry was uniquely associated with anxious and depressive symptoms whereas rumination was uniquely related to depression. In comparison to rumination, worry emerged as the dominant cognitive vulnerability factor that predicted increments in symptoms over time. With regards to coping behavior, low perceived coping effectiveness partially mediated the relation between worry and increases in anxiety and depression. Conversely, rumination uniquely predicted higher disengagement from problems, which resulted in further exacerbation of depressive mood. These results demonstrated not only the distinct features of worry and rumination on coping behavior, but also the different coping pathways by which they differentially impact on subsequent symptoms.

Rumination and alcohol-aggression expectancies

Borders, A., Barnwell, S. S., & Earleywine, M. (2007). Alcohol-aggression expectancies and dispositional rumination moderate the effect of alcohol consumption on alcohol-related aggression and hostility. Aggressive Behavior, 33, 327−338.

Abstract

Alcohol consumption increases aggression, but only in some drinkers. This study extends previous work to show how expectancies for alcohol-induced aggression and dispositional rumination moderate the link between alcohol consumption and alcohol-related aggression and hostility in a sample of 285 men and women. Alcohol-aggression expectancies and quantity of alcohol interacted to predict alcohol-related hostility and aggression. Trait rumination moderated the effect of alcohol consumption on aggressive acts. Finally, women who ruminated were more likely to report alcohol-related aggression than were men who ruminated. These results suggest that alcohol expectancies for aggression and rumination constitute two important cognitive facilitators of alcohol-related aggression and hostility, and that gender plays an important role in these relations.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Rumination and sleep


Carney, C. E., Edinger, J. E., Meyer, B., Lindman, L., & Istre, T. (2006). Symptom-focused rumination and sleep disturbance. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 4, 228-241.


Abstract

Rumination can prolong negative mood, disrupt sleep, and increase depression risk. Although there is evidence that poor sleepers ruminate, no studies have identified the ruminative content relevant for sleep disturbance. This study investigated (a) the association between rumination and sleep and (b) the ruminative content of poor sleepers. Results revealed that self-defined poor sleepers (n = 104) were more prone than self-defined good sleepers (n = 139) to ruminate and that the ruminative content was symptom focused (e.g., poor sleepers ruminated on causes of dysphoria, concentration, and fatigue symptoms). As dysphoria, reduced concentration, and fatigue are all commonly experienced daytime symptoms of insomnia, this preliminary finding of symptom-focused rumination should be further evaluated as a risk factor for further sleep disturbance in clinical samples as well as a possible link between insomnia and depression