Diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is currently symptom-based and no externally validated tests are available for routine use to confirm clinical diagnoses. Eye movement abnormalities in schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BPAD) have been consistently reported and their potential as a biological trait marker highlighted. Only a limited amount of research has been conducted in MDD. Eye movement performance of MDD patients (n = 99; F:M = 55:44; Mdn age = 48) was investigated using picture free-viewing, smooth pursuit and fixation stability tasks and recorded using a non-invasive EyeLink1000 infra-red eye tracker. Performance was compared with identical measures from SCZ, BPAD, Primary Care depression (DEP) and control participants. Analysis was conducted using analyses of variance and machine learning using Probabilistic Neural Networks (PNN). We discovered a unique MDD specific eye movement phenotype, which differentiated patients with MDD from other diagnostic groups with remarkable accuracy. MDDs generated a markedly poor smooth pursuit performance, characterised by small signal-to-noise ratio, small tracking gain and large positional error. Patients also exhibited a slow average saccade velocity during free-viewing and pursuit, and poor fixation maintenance on a centralised target. A PNN classifier delineated MDD from controls with exceptional statistical sensitivity (100%) and specificity (99%), independent of state or demographics. MDD was delineated from SCZ and BPAD in all models with above 89% sensitivity and 95% specificity. MDD and DEP patients were delineated with remarkable statistical sensitivity (90%) and specificity (98%). This emerging evidence suggests possible subtypes consistent with clinical features. Testretest reliability was high for a majority of performance measures; however some measures were less robust. Brief neuropsychology assessment advocated the role of frontal lobes in oculomotor behaviour. This preliminary evidence argues for a specific MDD oculomotor dysfunction and represents potential for a diagnostically applicable biological trait marker.

The serotonin system, tightly controlled by negative regulation by 5-HT1A autoreceptors, is involved in MDD since manipulating different aspects of the 5-HT systems produces behavioral changes akin to MDD symptoms. Deaf1 knockout mice, which have shown increased 5-HT1A autoreceptor levels, were examined. Conversely, the effect of loss of 5-HT1A autoreceptors in adulthood was studied in 5-HT1AautoKO mice engineered for inducible knockout of the 5-HT1A autoreceptor. Anxiety and depression behavioural assays were performed on the Deaf1KO and 5-HT1AautoKO models. Deaf1KO mice displayed an overall increase in anxious behaviour, yet no change in depressive behaviour relative to controls. Conditional 5-HT1A mice displayed no changes in anxiety or depressive behaviour. Compensation from remaining aspects of the serotonin system and/or other neurological systems may account for some of the behavioural results (or lack thereof). Additional testing that includes a stress paradigm is warranted in order to reveal any stress-dependent vulnerabilities to anxiety and depression.

Depression is not a normal part of aging; despite this, 15-17% of older adults have symptoms of depression (Lakkis & Mahmassani, 2015). Depression in older adults not only negatively impacts quality of life, but also negatively impacts co-morbid disease progression (Gallagher et al., 2016; Oza, Patel, & Baptist, 2016; Sinnige et al., 2013; Song et al., 2014). Depression treatment improves co-morbid disease outcomes (Bogner et al., 2016; Wood et al., 2015). Arizona has a large population of older adults and the number of older adult is projected to increase 174% by the year 2050 (Arizona Department of Health Services, n.d.). The majority of depressed patients seek treatment in the primary care setting (Lakkis & Mahmassani, 2015; Samuels et al., 2015). Arizona has over five thousand nurse practitioners working in primary care (Arizona Department of Health Services, 2014b). The purpose of this project was to determine the treatment practices of nurse practitioners caring for older adults with depression in southern Arizona. A needs assessment, using a self-administered survey, was conducted to determine how southern Arizona nurse practitioners self-identify their ability to recognize and treat older adult depression. Results revealed that southern Arizona nurse practitioners have barriers to recognition and treatment of depression in older adults. Barriers to the recognition of depression in older adults included the older adult patient’s medical complaint, limited appointment times in the primary care setting, and limited experience as a nurse practitioner. Treatment barriers identified by survey results included the older adult patient’s attitude toward depression, financial status, and ability to participate in depression treatment. The majority of these barriers are consistent with evidence established in previous studies. The ability of the older adult to participate in depression treatment was a barrier identified in the results not found in the synthesis of evidence. This project supports existing evidence regarding barriers to the recognition and treatment of older adult depression in the primary care setting. Further research is indicated to evaluate if removing the identified barriers will increase the nurse practitioners’ ability to recognize and treat depression in the older adult.

The self-referent encoding task (SRET) was employed to investigate the content and stability of the depressive self-schema. Two central hypotheses were proposed: the depressive self-schema is characterized by anxiety, as well as, depressive content; and certain aspects of the depressive self-schema remain stable across time and across remitted depressed mood. Study 1 ensured the appropriateness of the stimulus adjectives for the SRET. Forty-five undergraduates rated adjectives on the properties of anxiety, depression, emotional intensity, social desirability, and imagery. These adjectives formed four word conditions: anxiety-content, depression-content, negative-content, and positive-content. Multivariate analysis suggested that these four word conditions were roughly equated for word length, word frequency, and ratings of imagery, and emotional intensity, but were distinguishable with respect to their ratings of anxiety, depression, and social desirability. Study 2 employed the SRET as a potential method of documenting the relationship between anxiety and depression. Twenty-two moderately depressed, 40 mildly depressed, and 26 nondepressed undergraduates rated randomly presented sets of adjectives (described in Study 1) as to their self-descriptiveness. Both the types of self-descriptors and the rating times were recorded for this SRET. This task was followed by an intentional recall task for the adjectives, and the number of recalled words per adjective set was recorded. Multivariate analyses suggested that the nondepressed subjects showed a schematic bias in their processing of the positive-content words. Although the two depressed groups showed a bias in the processing of the depression-content words, this bias was not found in the processing of the anxiety-content words. These results were discussed in terms of the utility of the SRET for the domain of anxiety. Study 3 asked which aspects of depresssive schematic processing remain constant across time and across remitted depressed mood. Subjects from Study 2 were reassessed approximately three months after they had first completed the SRET. Among nondepressed subjects who remained nondepressed and depressed subjects who remained depressed, highly consistent schematic processing was observed across the two testing sessions. Among subjects who were depressed at the first testing session but were no longer depressed at the second testing session, these subjects no longer rated the depression-content adjectives as self-descriptive. However their decision latencies for the four groups of adjectives remained stable across the two testing sessions. Implications of these results were discussed in terms of cognitive structures as causal markers in depression. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Coyne's interactional formulation of depression (Coyne, 1976) states that the demands for support of the depressed individual are initially met with understanding but that over time, depressed persons engender increasingly negative reactions from others. The rejection of the depressed person is said to be mediated by a depressed mood induction in the other person. Coyne's model is primarily concerned with interactions involving family and friends of the depressed person, but in the past it has consistently been tested in laboratory situations examining interactions between strangers. The present study attempted to examine subjects' reactions to interaction with a depressed person, within the context of simulated relationships between friends or between strangers. It distinguished between compliance and initiation as expressions of rejection, and investigated the controversial issue of whether or not rejection is mediated by a depressed mood induction. An exploratory aspect of the study involved an inquiry into the potential role of interpersonal needs in the response to depressed individuals. The study was twofold: in the first part, the stimulus consisted of a videotaped interaction between two trained actresses portraying a depressed woman and a non-depressed woman in the experimental condition, and two non-depressed women in the control condition. In the second part, the same interactions were described in written scenarios. Subjects were instructed to imagine themselves as the non-depressed person interacting with the target person, as either strangers or best friends. Thus, the study consisted of two parallel 2X2 designs. Subjects completed the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist, the Wessman-Ricks Depression-Elation Scale, and the Mehrabian-Russell Semantic Differential at pretest and posttest to measure mood induction. Need for nurturance and need for autonomy were measured at pretest with the Interpersonal Adjective Scale, the Jackson Personality Research Form and the Campbell Need Scale. Posttest acceptance-rejection measures included a modified version of the Opinion Scale and the Impact Message Inventory. Results indicated that interactions with depressed individuals elicit a diffuse negative mood, more so in the context of relationships between friends, in the case of the written scenarios method. Depressed targets were also more rejected than non-depressed targets, but contrary to predictions intimacy decreased the degree of rejection. Rejection was not differentiated into the two concepts of compliance and initiation; however, results pointed to two distinct aspects of rejection - a behavioral aspect and a perceptual one. Mood induction appeared to be related only to the perceptual aspect of rejection, and not to the more salient behavioral one. The contribution of interpersonal needs to rejection appears equivocal; if indeed needs play a role in the mediation of rejection, need for nurturance seems to be more involved than need for autonomy. Although no Method effects were predicted, levels of intimacy were apparently not successfully reproduced in the videotaped stimuli. The two methods at times yielded different results, and further research will clarify their respective external validity. In light of the results of the present study, Coyne's model was in part supported but appears to be in need of serious revisions concerning the mediation of rejection and the effect of intimacy on rejection. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of postpartum depression and to generate a substantive theory that would describe and explain this experience. Although the area of postpartum depression has been extensively researched in the past three decades the overwhelming majority of studies have employed quantitative research methods. These methods do not illuminate the experience from the women's point of view and they disregard the context within which the experience occurs. This study employed the Grounded Theory Method, a naturalistic-inductive method o f inquiry, that allowed for the participants' experience to be described and for a substantive theory to emerge, which is grounded in the data. Sixteen women (age range 27 to 42 years) were interviewed twice about their experience of depression following childbirth. The first interview focused on the women's experience of depression, while the second interview centred on the women's comments and suggestions regarding the researcher's thematic summaries of their interviews. A semi-structured interview guide was used during both interviews, which allowed for variations to emerge while a unified framework was maintained. The grounded theory analysis of the data led to the development of a substantive theory describing and explaining the social-psychological process of the experience of postpartum depression. The theoretical model that describes and explains the experience has six phases: (1) Becoming Lost, (2) Getting Trapped, (3) Deep in Depression, (4) Struggling to Break Out, (5) Breaking out, and (6) Staying Well. In addition, two recurrent themes were identified: (a) The Relationship with the Partner, and (b) A Redefined Self. The theoretical model illustrates the relationship among the different phases, as well as the properties that make the phases up. It also describes the types, circumstances and conditions under which the experience occurs. Most of the components of the theoretical model are supported by the literature on postpartum depression. However, the model adds to the literature in identifying specific parts of the process of postpartum depression such as the period leading to the onset of depression, the struggle to come out of the depression and women's agency in coming out of the depression and maintaining their wellness following recovery. As well, the study illuminated the changes in the relationship with the partner, and the process of redefining self through the experience of PPD. Finally, the implications for further research and practice that stem from the theoretical model that was developed are discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The most effective and useful way to diagnose and subtype depression has been a long debated topic which even now does not have a definite answer. The biopsychosocial approach to diagnosis may be a solution to this problem by linking various etiologies to symptom presentation. The biopsychosocial model, in regard to depression, takes into account biological risk factors/contributors, psychological or cognitive risk factors/contributors, and social risk factors/contributors to depression when making diagnosis and subtyping determinations. However, the most effective way to use this model in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of depression is not yet clear. In this study, the utility of the biopsychosocial model as an effective approach to conceptualizing and treating depression was assessed by testing hypotheses that showed that etiological contributors are related to the presence and differential presentation of depression, and that these etiologically-based subtypes of depression respond differently to different forms of treatment. These hypotheses were tested using data from the National Comorbidity Survey - Replication (NCS-R). Results showed that the biopsychosocial model can effectively predict the presence, severity and chronicity of depression, and may inform specific biopsychosocially-based subtypes. No conclusions could be drawn regarding success in treatment based on the biopsychosocial model. Future directions for research based on the current study are discussed.

This analysis of faunal remains from Goodman Point Pueblo (5MT604), a large village occupied just before the ancestral Puebloans permanently left southwestern Colorado at the end of the thirteenth century, explores the effect of dietary stress during abandonment in the Four Corners region. As archaeologists, we interpret what these former cultures were like and what resources they used through what they left behind. By specifically looking at faunal remains, or remains from food resources, environmental change and dietary stress can be assessed. Identifications of taxa identified at Goodman Point are made explicit via a systematic paleontology. This is followed by site-level taxonomic abundances and spatial analysis. Then, effects of technological innovations, environmental change, and sample quality are examined as alternate explanations of shifts in foraging efficiency, particularly related to animal hunting. Analyzing why and if the availability of faunal resources changes over time helps to clarify why the ancestral Puebloans left southwestern Colorado.

archives@tulane.edu / 1 / Katherine Weissmuller

No description available.