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Although the benefits of Meditation-Based Programs are well documented, the mechanisms underlying these benefits have not been fully elucidated. Therefore, we examined whether: (1) formal training in mindfulness and compassion meditation modifies the distribution of attentional resources towards emotional information; and (2) whether changes in attentional processing of emotional information after the meditation programs mediate the improvements in psychological distress, emotion regulation, and well-being. A sample of 103 participants enrolled in the study: 36 in the mindfulness program (MBSR), 30 in the compassion program (CCT), and 37 in the no-intervention comparison group (CG). The assessment before and after the programs included the completion of an emotional Attentional Blink task (AB) together with self-report measures of psychological distress, emotion regulation, and well-being. MBSR and CCT reduced similarly the AB deficit, whereas no changes occurred in the CG. This AB reduction was found for the different emotional and non-emotional stimuli (i.e., negative, positive, and neutral), showing a significant disengagement from first-target emotions and significant accessibility of second-target emotions to consciousness. The effects of both meditation programs on the psychological measures were mediated by changes in the AB and emotion regulation skills. Due to our naturalistic design in a real-world community setting, random assignment of participants was not feasible. Meditation may promote more flexible and balanced attention to emotional information, which may be a key transdiagnostic mechanism underlying its benefits on emotional distress and well-being. • Comparison of mindfulness (MBSR), compassion (CCT), and control group (CG). • The assessment included an emotional Attentional Blink task (AB). • Both MBSR and CCT reduced the AB, while no changes were found in CG. • Effects of meditation on distress and well-being was mediated by AB changes. • Attention to emotional information as a transdiagnostic mechanism of meditation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Previous theories and research show clear divergences on the roles of the behavioral activation system (BAS) and the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) in depression. Across four studies, we examined the effects of a sad mood on the motivational pattern of sensitivity to reward and punishment. Psychological variables associated with such changes and implications for vulnerability to depression were also explored. For this purpose, we designed a state version of the extensively used BIS/BAS Scales (Carver & White, 1994). Using samples of undergraduate students, we found that both a natural (Study 1) and a laboratory-induced sad mood (Studies 2 and 3) generated a marked decrease in sensitivity to reward but did not alter sensitivity to punishment. Study 3a showed that participants’ anxious attachment predicted larger decreases in sensitivity to reward after a sad mood induction. Study 3b extended these results by showing that sensitivity to reward, when assessed after the negative mood induction, predicted increases in dysphoria 7weeks later. Implications of the results for research on vulnerability to depression are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Negative interpretation bias is a potential risk factor for emotional disorders. • A new clinically-based online Cognitive Bias Modification program was administered. • Self-report and experimental tasks were used to disentangle mechanisms of change. • The program directly reduced interpretation and memory biases. • Changes in interpretation bias mediated improvement in depression symptoms. Negative interpretation bias is a potential risk factor for emotional disorders. In this study, we tested a clinically inspired 4-session online Cognitive Bias Modification-Interpretation (CBM-I Clin) program to modify negative interpretation biases. We randomized one hundred and twenty-one volunteer young adults (Mean age = 21.6 years, SD = 3.5; 85 % women) with varying levels of emotional distress to either an experimental or waitlist control group. Mediation analyses were used to disentangle the associations between the intervention, changes in interpretation biases (assessed by both a self-report and an experimental task), and changes in measures of cognitive vulnerability and symptoms of depression and anxiety. The results showed that the CBM-I Clin could change negative interpretation biases. Also, it had a direct effect on the change in negative memory bias, an indirect effect on the change in depression symptoms via the change in interpretation bias, and both direct and indirect effects on the change in self-reported dysfunctional attitudes. The study included a non-clinical sample of participants and it did not control for some potential confounding factors (e.g., attentional disorders). Furthermore, participants' engagement during the sessions at home was not supervised. The CBM-I Clin is a potential tool to prevent and intervene in emotional disorders in young adults and could complement other traditional CBM procedures or clinical interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotion regulation (ER) is a central target in the study of psychological and neurobiological processes of emotions for numerous psychological disorders. Ecological momentary assessments, overcoming retrospective self-reports, allow a better understanding of the relation between the use of ER strategies and daily life affective experiences. A systematic review and meta-analyses of studies testing these relations through experience sampling methods (ESM) and daily diaries were conducted. ESM studies showed significant large effect sizes in contemporaneous relations between negative affect (NA) and rumination, suppression, and worry, and in both contemporaneous and prospective relations between positive affect (PA) and reappraisal; medium effect sizes in prospective relations between NA and rumination, and PA and distraction; and a small effect size in the prospective relation between NA and suppression. Daily diary studies showed significant large effect sizes in contemporaneous relations between NA and rumination and suppression, and in both contemporaneous and prospective relations between PA and reappraisal; medium effect sizes in contemporaneous relations between PA and acceptance, and problem-solving; and a small effect size in the prospective relation between NA and reappraisal. These findings shed light on the temporal relations between the use of ER strategies and affective experiences and highlight conceptual and methodological limitations in the field. • A meta-analysis of daily life emotion regulation strategies and affect was conducted. • 37 experience sampling methods (ESM) and 39 daily diary studies were included. • Reappraisal, acceptance, problem-solving were related to ongoing positive affect. • Reappraisal and distraction were prospectively related to next-time positive affect. • Rumination and suppression were related to ongoing and next-time negative affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background and objectives: Cognitive models propose that depression is caused by dysfunctional schemas that endure beyond the depressive episode, representing vulnerability factors for recurrence. However, research testing negative cognitions linked to dysfunctional schemas in formerly depressed individuals is still scarce. Furthermore, negative cognitions are presumed to be linked to biases in recalling negative self-referent information in formerly depressed individuals, but no studies have directly tested this association. In the present study, we evaluated differences between formerly and never-depressed individuals in several experimental indices of negative cognitions and their associations with the recall of emotional self-referent material. Methods: Formerly (n = 30) and never depressed individuals (n = 40) completed measures of explicit (i.e., scrambled sentence test) and automatic (i.e., lexical decision task) processing to evaluate negative cognitions. Furthermore participants completed a self-referent incidental recall task to evaluate memory biases. Results: Formerly compared to never depressed individuals showed greater negative cognitions at both explicit and automatic levels of processing. Results also showed greater recall of negative self-referent information in formerly compared to never-depressed individuals. Finally, individual differences in negative cognitions at both explicit and automatic levels of processing predicted greater recall of negative self-referent material in formerly depressed individuals. Limitations: Analyses of the relationship between explicit and automatic processing indices and memory biases were correlational and the majority of participants in both groups were women. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence of negative cognitions in formerly depressed individuals at both automatic and explicit levels of processing that may confer a cognitive vulnerability to depression. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Despite the influence of Beck's cognitive models of depression, the presence and magnitude of the specific proposed cognitive biases have not been systematically investigated. After a systematic search in PsycInfo and PubMED, studies reporting self-reported outcomes on cognitive biases and depressive symptoms in depressed and/or healthy groups were included. From a total of 4840 records, two different meta-analyses were conducted. 23 studies on 4865 participants provided data about catastrophising and depression (g = 0.95, 95% CI [0.64; 1.26]) and 40 studies on 4678 participants provided data about interpretation bias in depression (g = 0.78, 95% CI [0.43; 1.13]). Moderation analyses showed that the relationship between catastrophising and depression was higher in studies with more women, when the corresponding author was from a Western country, and when the instrument to measure depression was the DSM criteria, the SCL-90, the BDI, or the DASS. The relationship between interpretation bias and depressive symptoms was significant only in studies comparing depressed and healthy groups, and when using specific instruments to measure symptoms (DSM/RDC criteria plus a scale cut-off score) and cognitive bias (CDQ/CBQ, SCT, AST-D, other). Some limitations are acknowledged, but risk of publication bias was found to be low, and these results support the utility of some self-reported measures of cognitive biases in depression. • We examined the magnitude of self-reported cognitive biases in depression. • Sixty-three studies published between 1979 and 2017 were included (N = 9543 participants). • Meta-analyses included studies of individuals grouped by either a diagnostic category or a dimensional measure depression. • The most consistent evidence of biases was found for catastrophizing and interpretation bias. • There were few evidences of the specificity of cognitive biases in depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying differences in the clinical response to specific interventions is an important challenge in the field of Clinical Psychology. This is especially true in the treatment of depression where many treatments appear to have comparable outcomes. In a controlled trial, we compared a positive psychology group intervention, the Integrative Positive Psychological Intervention for Depression (IPPI-D; n = 62) to a cognitive-behavioral therapy group intervention (CBT; n = 66) for depression. No statistically or clinically-significant differences between the treatments were found, but a slight advantage was observed, on average, for IPPI-D. The aim of the present study was to identify and combine moderators of the differential efficacy of these two psychological interventions for clinical depression. For this purpose, a secondary analysis using the Personalized Advantage Index (PAI) was performed to identify the intervention predicted to produce the better outcome for each patient. Six of the 21 potential moderators were found to predict differential efficacy between the treatments. IPPI-D was predicted to be the optimal treatment for 73% of the sample. Baseline features that characterized these individuals were: mental and physical comorbidity, prior antidepressant medication, higher levels of negative thoughts, and higher personal growth. The 27% who were predicted to achieve better outcomes in CBT than in IPPI-D tended to have these baseline features: no comorbidities, no prior antidepressant medication, lower levels of negative thoughts, and lower personal growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Difficulties to engage attention to positive stimuli and to disengage attention from negative stimuli are typically found in depression. Yet, most of the evidence supporting these attentional biases comes from experimental paradigms in which emotional information (e.g., happy or sad faces) is simultaneously presented with neutral information. Few studies have explored attentional biases when emotional stimuli of different valence are presented simultaneously. The aim of the present study was to assess visual scan patterns of non-dysphoric and dysphoric participants when emotional information is presented simultaneously.Method: Using an eye-tracker methodology, the gradient relation between attentional biases and depression scores as well as differences between groups in their attentional performance were assessed in non-dysphoric participants (N = 84) and dysphoric participants (N = 58). Three different pairs of faces were used: happy-neutral, neutral-sad, and happy-sad.Results: First, we found that simultaneous presentation of emotional information (i.e., happy vs. negative faces) reduces the magnitude of attentional biases towards positive information. Second, we also found a significant negative relation between attentional biases towards positive information and depression scores. Finally, compared to non-dysphoric participants, dysphoric individuals marginally spent less time attending positive information in both happy-neutral and happy-sad trials.Limitations: The cross-sectional nature of our study does not allow us to make inferences about causality. Further, only one type of simultaneous emotional faces presentation (i.e., happy-sad) was used.Conclusions: These results support the need for further research on the processing of competing emotional stimuli in depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]