Volume 20 • Issue 1 • 1000e108
J Psychiatry, an open access journal
ISSN: 2378-5756
Open Access
Wang and Zhang, J Psychiatry 2017, 20:1
DOI: 10.4172/2378-5756.1000e108
Editorial OMICS International
Journal of Psychiatry
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ISSN: 2378-5756
*Corresponding author: Wei Wang, Department of Clinical Psychology and
Psychiatry, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058,
China, Tel: +86-571-88208188; E-mail: drwangwei@zju.edu.cn
Received January 16, 2017; Accepted January 26, 2017; Published January 30,
2017
Citation: Wang W, Zhang B (2017) Further Progress in the Etiopathology of
Depressive Disorder. J Psychiatry 20: e108 doi:10.4172/2378-5756.1000e108
Copyright: © 2017 Wang W, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and
source are credited
Further Progress in the Etiopathology of Depressive Disorder
Wei Wang* and Bingren Zhang
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Editorial
Depression, as one of the mental disorders, is the most diicult
one to diagnose and to manage. he disorder affects more than 350
million people worldwide [1]. Patients with depression might manifest
differently in memory, attention and behavior in different disease
stages, and medical history and the growing endemic condition might
be inluencing factors for the etiopathology of the disorder.
In order to explore the features of remitted depressed patients in
the attentional bias towards facial expression of Happiness and Sadness,
Li et al. used the eye-tracking technique to collect the eye-movement
data of facial expression reactions of the remitted depressed patients
and healthy volunteers. hey found that the remitted depressed group
showed an attentional bias tendency towards Happiness, suggesting that
their initiative efforts to form a "protective bias" to relieve depressive
symptoms [2].
Using a modiied Sternberg working memory paradigm,
accompanying affective pictures with different valences, Li et al. also
had conducted another investigation on the capability to experience
emotion in 22 patients with irst-onset and untreated major depressive
disorder and in 22 healthy volunteers. hey found greater pupil
diameter changes towards positive emotions, and better working
memory performances on negative emotions in major depressive
disorder, comparing to those in the healthy volunteers. hey further
recommended the mood-congruent memory effect and anhedonia as
the core symptoms of depression, and suggested that anhedonia could
be an endophenotypic marker for the disorder [3].
To investigate the clinical predictors of depression in a prison
situation, Uche and Princewill had interviewed 400 prisoners in
Nigeria, screening with the Beck Depression Inventory and the
depression components of WHO SCAN. hey found signiicant clinical
factors, including retroviral status and past psychiatric history, with the
strongest predictors of depression being the past psychiatry history [4].
Our colleague Hariri from Taif University of Saudi Arabia had
explored if clients with vitamin D deiciency have different depression
and anxiety levels comparing to those with vitamin D insuiciency, with
data from 246 participants of Saudi Arabia, where Vitamin D deiciency
is becoming a serious endemic condition. He found that individuals
with low vitamin D levels, whether deicient or insuicient, may suffer
from depression and anxiety problems [5].
hese excellent researchers have identiied some clinical
characteristics of the depression disorder and have enriched the
scientiic knowledge about its etiology and pathology. hese indings
might provide new hints for the prevention and treatment of the
disorder worldwide.
References
1. World Health Organization. Depression. Media center.
2. Li M, Lu SF, Feng L, Fu BB, Wang G, Zhong N, Hu B (2016) Attentional bias in
remitted depressed patients: Evidence from an eye-tracking study. J Psychiatry
19: 5.
3. Li M, Lu SF, Feng L, Fu BB, Wang G, Zhong N, Hu B (2016) Emotional
experience and the mood-congruent working memory effect in irst-onset and
untreated depressive disorder patients. J Psychiatry 19: 4.
4. Uche N, Princewill S (2016) Clinical factors as predictors of depression in a
Nigerian prison population. J Psychiatry 19: 1.
5. Hariri AA (2016) Vitamin D deiciency and insuficiency and their role in growing
levels of depression and anxiety in Saudi Arabia. J Psychiatry 19: 3.