Ruminative and Dampening Responses to Positive Affect in Bipolar Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

Abstract Objective: As the use of ineffective emotion regulation strategies has the capacity to influence the onset and maintenance of affective disorders, they should form targets for psychological interventions. Since a lot of attention has been focused on responses to negative affect, the present study aimed to investigate differences in responses to positive affect (PA) between bipolar disorder (BD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and healthy controls, and among BD patients (between BD-I and BD-II, and predominant polarities). This might be of interest to guide psychological models and treatments for both BD and MDD. Methods: Groups were derived based on prior clinical diagnosis in outpatient clinics. All participants (96 BD-I, 27 BD-II, 177 MDD, and 275 healthy controls) completed the responses to positive affect (RPA) questionnaire. In the BD sample, current mood status was determined using the Clinical Global Impression for Bipolar Disorders (CGI-BP), whilst the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS-SR) was used to determine current mood status in the MDD sample. The control sample completed the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) to determine current mood status. Results: Patients (BD-I, BD-II, and MDD) were more likely to dampen and ruminate about PA than healthy controls. MDD patients were more likely to engage in dampening, whilst BD patients were more likely to engage in rumination. BD-II patients were more likely to engage in dampening compared to BD-I patients. Medication, current mood status, and predominant polarity were not associated with different PA strategies in the BD sample. In the MDD sample, severity of current mood status was associated with more dampening to PA. Conclusion: Differences in responses to PA were observed between groups. Further longitudinal research is needed to determine whether these patterns help predict the course of future mood disturbances, before more targeted psychological interventions can be implemented.