Tryptophan depletion and emotional processing in healthy volunteers at high risk for depression - PubMed (original) (raw)

Randomized Controlled Trial

Tryptophan depletion and emotional processing in healthy volunteers at high risk for depression

Adriana Feder et al. Biol Psychiatry. 2011.

Abstract

Background: Studies in depressed patients have demonstrated the presence of emotional bias toward negative stimuli, as well as dysregulated brain serotonin function. The present study compared the effects of acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) on both an emotional processing and a planning task in never-depressed healthy volunteers at high and low familial risk for depression.

Methods: Young adults with no personal psychiatric history were stratified into two groups based on family history (n = 25). Participants were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover ATD study and completed the affective go/no-go and Tower of London tasks once during each condition.

Results: There was a significant treatment by valence by group interaction on the affective go/no-go, driven primarily by a greater frequency of inappropriate responses to sad than to happy distracters in the high-risk group during ATD. No group differences were observed on the Tower of London.

Conclusions: Asymptomatic individuals at high familial risk for depression showed abnormalities in emotional processing while undergoing experimentally induced tryptophan depletion. These findings support emotional processing disturbances as potential trait-level abnormalities associated with the risk of mood disorder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Dr. Charney reported no other biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest. Ms. Skipper, Dr. Blair, Ms. Buchholz, Dr. Schwarz, Dr. Doucette, Ms. Alonso, and Ms. Collins reported no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1

Performance on the affective go/no-go task. Figure 1 illustrates a significant treatment by valence by group interaction in distracter error rates on the affective go/no-go task [F(1,23) = 5.00, p = .035]. During acute tryptophan depletion, the high-risk group made more inappropriate responses to sad distracters during happy target blocks than to happy distracters during sad target blocks, a difference that approached significance [t(12) = 1.93, p = .08]. In the low-risk group, responses to distracters during acute tryptophan depletion did not differ significantly by valence [t(11) = 1.00, p = .34]. There were no significant findings during the placebo condition. Each diamond or triangle represents an individual participant. ATD, acute tryptophan depletion.

Comment in

Cited by

Simplified dietary acute tryptophan depletion: effects of a novel amino acid mixture on the neurochemistry of C57BL/6J mice.
Sánchez CL, Van Swearingen AE, Arrant AE, Biskup CS, Kuhn CM, Zepf FD. Sánchez CL, et al. Food Nutr Res. 2015 Aug 13;59:27424. doi: 10.3402/fnr.v59.27424. eCollection 2015. Food Nutr Res. 2015. PMID: 26278978 Free PMC article.
Influence of Tryptophan and Serotonin on Mood and Cognition with a Possible Role of the Gut-Brain Axis.
Jenkins TA, Nguyen JC, Polglaze KE, Bertrand PP. Jenkins TA, et al. Nutrients. 2016 Jan 20;8(1):56. doi: 10.3390/nu8010056. Nutrients. 2016. PMID: 26805875 Free PMC article. Review.
Association Study of Genotype by Depressive Response during Tryptophan Depletion in Subjects Recovered from Major Depression.
Moreno FA, Erickson RP, Garriock HA, Gelernter J, Mintz J, Oas-Terpstra J, Davies MA, Delgado PL. Moreno FA, et al. Mol Neuropsychiatry. 2015 Oct;1(3):165-174. doi: 10.1159/000439114. Epub 2015 Sep 24. Mol Neuropsychiatry. 2015. PMID: 26528486 Free PMC article.
Empathic accuracy and oxytocin after tryptophan depletion in adults at risk for depression.
Hogenelst K, Schoevers RA, Kema IP, Sweep FC, aan het Rot M. Hogenelst K, et al. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2016 Jan;233(1):111-20. doi: 10.1007/s00213-015-4093-9. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2016. PMID: 26462806 Free PMC article. Clinical Trial.
Monoamine polygenic liability in health and cocaine dependence: imaging genetics study of aversive processing and associations with depression symptomatology.
Moeller SJ, Parvaz MA, Shumay E, Wu S, Beebe-Wang N, Konova AB, Misyrlis M, Alia-Klein N, Goldstein RZ. Moeller SJ, et al. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2014 Jul 1;140:17-24. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2014.04.019. Epub 2014 Apr 28. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2014. PMID: 24837582 Free PMC article.

References

1. Leppanen JM. Emotional information processing in mood disorders: A review of behavioral and neuroimaging findings. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2006;19:34–39. - PubMed
1. Clark L, Chamberlain SR, Sahakian BJ. Neurocognitive mechanisms in depression: Implications for treatment. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2009;32:57–74. - PubMed
1. Murphy FC, Sahakian BJ, Rubinsztein JS, Michael A, Rogers RD, Robbins TW, Paykel ES. Emotional bias and inhibitory control processes in mania and depression. Psychol Med. 1999;29:1307–1321. - PubMed
1. Erickson K, Drevets WC, Clark L, Cannon DM, Bain EE, Zarate CA, Jr, et al. Mood-congruent bias in affective go/no-go performance of unmedicated patients with major depressive disorder. Am J Psychiatry. 2005;162:2171–2173. - PubMed
1. Williams JM, Mathews A, MacLeod C. The emotional Stroop task and psychopathology. Psychol Bull. 1996;120:3–24. - PubMed

Tryptophan depletion and emotional processing in healthy volunteers at high risk for depression - PubMed (original) (raw)