Investigation of attentional bias to emotional-related words in first-episode depressive patients

Objective To explore the attentional bias in first-episode depressive patients and the correlations between the attentional bias. Methods In the beginning of the treatment, a total of 34 first-episode depressive patients in treatment-naive and demography matched 40 healthy controls completed the Chinese Emotional Stroop Task that assessed the attentional bias. Results The comparison between depressive patients and healthy controls on the reaction time of negative, neutral and positive-related words were significant ((1185.71±410.60)ms/(754.68±215.36)ms, t=5.775, P<0.01; (1127.92±344.89)ms/(755.37±213.49)ms, t=5.675, P<0.01; (1166.17±395.72)ms/(761.70±194.66)ms, t=5.708, P<0.01 respectively). Through analysis of variance, the difference of error numbers among the neutral, negative and positive-related words((3.41±2.11)times, (2.24±1.65)times, (2.97±1.17)times) in the depressive patients were significant (F=4.197, P=0.018). The difference of error numbers between negative-related words and neutral-related words were significant through analysis of least significant difference(P<0.01). Conclusion The results suggest that depressive patients before treatment have attentional bias in negative-related word.Attentional bias in negative-related stimuli may be one of the characteristics of cognitive function in first-episode depressive patients. Key words: Depressive patients; Attentional bias; Stroop task