Impaired emotional intelligence is related to symptoms severity and suicidal attempts in depression

Objective: Few studies demonstrated the impairment of perceived emotional intelligence ‘EI’ among depressed patients. This study aimed to assess the perceived EI in a group of depressed patients, and its association with different clinical characteristics. Methods: Forty-five patients diagnosed with depression were assessed by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and compared to 45 controls that were assessed by the Arabic version of General Health Questionnaire to exclude Psychiatric disorders. The Arabic version of Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) is used to evaluate EI in both groups. Results: Patients with depression showed significantly lower EI scores in the three parts of TMMS (repair, clarity and attention) compared to the controls ( p < .001). Patients showed significant difference in clarity subscale ( p = .005) and attention regarding severity of depression ( p < .001). Clarity of feelings was significantly higher in patients who suffered more than two episodes ( p = .012). Depressive patients with suicidal attempts showed significantly lower scores of repair ( p = .044) and attention ( p = .016) subscales. There were no significant differences of TMMS subscales between patients with and without suicidal ideation, sleep disturbance and somatic symptoms. Conclusions: The current study demonstrates impaired perceived EI among patients with depression that is correlated with symptom severity and suicidal attempts.

Sleep-Dependent Anomalous Cortical Information Interaction in Patients With Depression

Depression is a prevalent mental illness with high morbidity and is considered the main cause of disability worldwide. Brain activity while sleeping is reported to be affected by such mental illness. To explore the change of cortical information flow during sleep in depressed patients, a delay symbolic phase transfer entropy of scalp electroencephalography signals was used to measure effective connectivity between cortical regions in various frequency bands and sleep stages. The patient group and the control group shared similar patterns of information flow between channels during sleep. Obvious information flows to the left hemisphere and to the anterior cortex were found. Moreover, the occiput tended to be the information driver, whereas the frontal regions played the role of the receiver, and the right hemispheric regions showed a stronger information drive than the left ones. Compared with healthy controls, such directional tendencies in information flow and the definiteness of role division in cortical regions were both weakened in patients in most frequency bands and sleep stages, but the beta band during the N1 stage was an exception. The computable sleep-dependent cortical interaction may provide clues to characterize cortical abnormalities in depressed patients and should be helpful for the diagnosis of depression.

Comparison of Prevalence and Risk Factors of PTSS Between Chinese Patients With Depression and Non-depressed Controls During COVID-19 Outbreak

Background: COVID-19 pandemic is a traumatic event all over the world, and may lead to post-traumatic stress symptom (PTSS) in different population who are under the threat of novel corona virus. Therefore, the aim of our study was to compare the prevalence and risk factors of PTSS between Chinese patients with depression and non-depressed controls during the COVID-19 outbreak.Methods: 437 depressed patients and 2,940 non-depressed controls were enrolled in this cross-sectional study between February 14 and May 9, 2020.The Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R), Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used to evaluate the psychological status of all the participants.Results: The prevalence of PTSS (IES-R ≥ 33) in depressed patients (45.08%) was higher than that in non-depressed controls (5.31%). Patients with depression were 16 times more likely to suffer from PTSS than those without depression. Correlation analyses showed that the IES-R total score was positively correlated with SDS, SAS, and PSQI scores in both depressed and non-depressed groups (Bonferroni corrected all p &lt; 0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that SAS score, and PSQI score were independently associated with IES-R total score in both depression and non-depression groups. In depressed patients, education level and duration of media exposure to COVID-19 were positively associated with PTSS, while in the non-depressed group, subjects who were married, in the 31–50 year group or with higher SDS score were more likely to develop PTSS.Conclusions: These results indicate that the prevalence rate of PTSS in patients with depression is very higher than that in subjects without depression. PTSS are associated with a number of socio-demographic and clinical variables.

Anticipation of High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein Effect on Post Myocardial Infarction Depression Disorder

Background: The natural history of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) as the most prevalent public health issue in Iran has changed with the introduction of novel therapeutic strategies that have reduced its mortality significantly. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent and disabling psychiatric disorder and frequently co-exist with AMI. There are proposed pathophysiological links between the two diseases among which inflammation is the most important. With more patients surviving a myocardial infarction (MI) event, post-MI depression has become an important determinant of disability and mortality. Materials and Methods: In this study we defined a 1-month post-MI depressive scale of 200 patients using Beck’s inventory questionnaire II and measured serum high Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP) and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) to look for the association between inflammatory state and atherosclerosis in different depression score categories. Results: Minimum and maximum Beck scores were 1 and 43, respectively with a mean of 13±8. The mean CIMT was 0.77±0.26 mm. Serum hs-CRP level was measured with a mean of 1.51±1.6 mg/L. According to BDI-II scores, 44.2% of patients 1-month post-MI suffered from more than mild depression. Being affected was not correlated with either the level of hs-CRP or CIMT. Nearly 44 percent of patients suffered more than mild depression. There was a negative association between serum hs-CRP level and CIMT as a measure of atherosclerosis in groups of depressed versus non-depressed patients. This may indicate that the extent of atherosclerosis is not correlated with the inflammatory state after MI in depressed versus non-depressed patients. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that the extent of atherosclerosis is not correlated with the inflammatory state after MI in depressed versus non-depressed patients. Nonetheless, the prognostic indications of increased hs-CRP and depression after AMI remains to be investigated further. [GMJ.2021;10:e1512]

Plasma levels of neurotrophic factors are not associated with the severity of depression

Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses. Impaired neurogenesis is observed in depression. Studying the concentration of biochemical indicators in the blood that may be involved in the pathogenesis of depression, looking for associations with the severity of depressive symptoms can be useful as an objective diagnosis of the disease and predicting the severity of the pathology. We determined plasma concentrations of the monoamine neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, and neurotrophic factors involved in neurogenesis (BDNF, CDNF and neuropeptide Y) in depressed patients and healthy volunteers with the same socio-demographic parameters using enzyme immunoassay and mass spectrometry. All study participants were administered the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7), and the Center for Epidemiological Studies (CES-D). The cumulative scores on the three scales examined were significantly higher in depressed patients than in controls. The concentration of serotonin, dopamine, BDNF, CDNF, and neuropeptide Y in plasma did not differ between the subject groups and was not associated with the scores on the scales. Positive correlations were found between the content of neuropeptide Y and serotonin, BDNF and CDNF in blood plasma. Thus, although these markers are related to the pathophysiology of depression, they do not correlate with the severity of symptomatology and possibly in plasma cannot reflect processes occurring in the brain.