Change in negative attention bias mediates the association between attention bias modification training and depression symptom improvement.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Attention bias modification training (ABMT) is purported to reduce depression by targeting and modifying an attentional bias for sadness-related stimuli. However, few tests of this hypothesis have been completed.

Method

The present study examined whether change in attentional bias mediated a previously reported association between ABMT condition (active ABMT, sham ABMT, assessments only; N = 145) and depression symptom change among depressed adults. The preregistered, primary measure of attention bias was a discretized eye-tracking metric that quantified the proportion of trials where gaze time was greater for sad stimuli than neutral stimuli.

Results

Contemporaneous longitudinal simplex mediation indicated that change in attentional bias early in treatment

SUBMITTER: Beevers CG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9392903 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature