Dysthymic and hypomanic self-referent effects associated with depressive illness and recovery

Cognitive bias in severe depression was examined using the self-referent intentional recall depth of processing paradigm. Depressive and normal subjects were required to recall dysthymic and hypomanic adjective stimuli that had previously been encoded under self-referent or semantic instructions. Depressives recalled essentially the same number of dysthymic adjectives under the self-reference instructional set with the syndrome present and during remission. Depressives also did not differ from controls in their recall of dysthymic adjectives. Of greater difference between the groups and conditions was the recall effect based on the hypomanic adjectives. Depressives showed a clear absence of recall of hypomanic adjectives during depression, followed by a significant increase in the recall of the same type of adjectives during remission. The results were interpreted as supporting the need for further study of the cognitive processes leading to inhibition and recovery of positive recall in depressives.