NEGATIVE COGNITION DEPRESSION--ETIOLOGY AND COURSE

这个修订后的竞争延续是2站点协作的一部分

This revised competing continuation is part of a 2-site collaborative research grant with an identical (except for budget/personnel) application submitted concurrently by Dr. Lauren B. Alloy of Temple University under the same title. Continued funding is required at both sites to complete the project. Prior research does not provide an adequate test of the hopelessness theory (HT) and Beck's theory (BT) of depression and may be very misleading about these cognitive theories' validity. Investigators have failed to appreciate the methodological implications of the kinds of causal relations specified in the theories (e.g., diathesis-stress, heterogeneity) and that these theories hypothesize the existence of an, as yet, unidentified subtype of depression- "negative cognition depression" (NCD). Thus, the overarching goal of this collaborative project is to provide a more powerful test of HT' and BT's predictions about the ethiology of NCD and a validation of this subtype. To this end, a large scale, 2-year prospective study designed to test the etiological hypotheses of HT and BT is underway at both sites. Currently, 352 originally non-depressed, non-psychopathological Ss who are at either high or low cognitive risk for interview assessments of stressful life events, cognition, and psychiatric status/symptoms in order to predict onsets and subsequent relapses/recurrences of depression. In the continuation, this sample will be followed for 3 additional years as the Ss make the transition from late adolescence to adulthood. This continued follow-up will allow for a test of HT and BT during late adolescence, early adulthood, and the transition period between these two developmental periods. The continuity and change of cognitive style and attendant change in vulnerability to depression will be examined. Familial and developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression also will be examined. Parents of Ss will be recruited for an assessment of lifetime psychopathology, cognitive style, and parental feedback style. These studies will contribute to: 1) the scientific understanding of the ethology of a subset of the mood disorders, 2) a more valid nosology of the depressive disorders, 3) an understanding of the origins and continuity/change of cognitive vulnerability to depression, and 4) the development of intervention for treating and preventing NCD and other depressions.