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Design and Implementation of an fMRI Study Examining Thought Suppression in Young Women with, and At-risk, for Depression
Published on: May 19, 2015
Thought suppression in patients with bipolar disorder
David J Miklowitz1, Yousra Alatiq, John R Geddes
1Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Semel Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90024-1759, USA. dmiklowitz@mednet.ucla.edu
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
|May 12, 2010
Summary
Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) actively suppress negative thoughts more than controls, especially under cognitive load or reward. This suggests thought suppression is a key target for psychological interventions in BD.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Suppression of negative thoughts is documented in major depressive disorder (MDD) but not bipolar disorder (BD).
- Understanding cognitive control mechanisms in BD is crucial for developing targeted interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate negative thought suppression in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) compared to major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls.
- To examine the influence of cognitive load and reward on thought suppression in these groups.
Main Methods:
- A sentence completion task was used to assess thought suppression under varying cognitive load and reward conditions.
- Participants included individuals with BD (n=36), MDD (n=20), and healthy controls (n=20).
Main Results:
- Patients with BD demonstrated increased negative sentence completions under load, reward, and no-load/no-reward conditions compared to controls.
- BD patients showed more negative sentence completions than MDD patients under reward conditions.
- BD patients reported higher use of negative thought suppression than controls, though this difference diminished when controlling for mood state.
- No significant differences were found in hyperpositive sentence completions across groups.
Conclusions:
- Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with enhanced active suppression of negative thoughts, particularly under cognitive load or reward.
- Thought suppression represents a potential therapeutic target for psychological interventions in BD.
- Mood state significantly influences observed group differences in negative biases.
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