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Self-report and Cognitive Processing Measures of Depressive Thinking Predict Subsequent Major Depressive Disorder

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Abstract

We examined the utility of two measures of cognitive bias—a self-report questionnaire, the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (Weissman and Beck 1978), and a cognitive processing task, the Scrambled Sentences Test (Wenzlaff 1988, 1993), in predicting episodes of depression prospectively in a community-based sample of nondepressed women. When examined separately, each measure contributed significantly to predicting a subsequent diagnosis of MDD, supporting the utility of both types of measures as indicators of depression vulnerability. When examined together, each measure made an independent contribution to the prediction of MDD, raising the possibility that questionnaire and processing tasks may assess separate aspects of cognitive vulnerability to depression.

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Notes

  1. Analyses that included both BDI and recent depression status as covariates showed the same pattern of significant and non significant results as those reported here in which only BDI was used as a covariate.

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  1. The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Stephanie S. Rude, Jennifer A. Durham-Fowler, Emily S. Baum, Stephanie B. Rooney & Kacey L. Maestas

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  1. Stephanie S. Rude
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  2. Jennifer A. Durham-Fowler
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  3. Emily S. Baum
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Correspondence to Stephanie S. Rude.

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Rude, S.S., Durham-Fowler, J.A., Baum, E.S. et al. Self-report and Cognitive Processing Measures of Depressive Thinking Predict Subsequent Major Depressive Disorder. Cogn Ther Res 34, 107–115 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9237-y

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