The available evidence suggests the early changes in cognition may predict treatment response in individuals with MDD .
The results depict an emerging trend towards early changes in facial emotion recognition ( i.e. , a hot cognitive process ) as a predictor of treatment outcome .
Conclusion : The identification of reliable early treatment predictors of antidepressant response would be clinical ly significant , enabling clinicians to more accurately evaluate the efficacy of selected treatment avenues .
HIGHLIGHTSCognitive dysfunction is a principal feature and determinant of health outcome in MDD.Cognitive changes have shown to occur prior to improvements in mood symptoms .
Early changes in emotional processing may predict treatment response in MDD
Background : Despite the widespread use of antidepressants in clinical practice , the current trial‐ and ‐error approach to medication selection contributes to treatment failure and underscores the need to identify reliable predictors of antidepressant response .
Since changes in measures of cognition have been reported to occur early in treatment and prior to improvements in overall mood symptoms , the present review aims to determine whether early changes in measures of cognition can predict response in individuals with MDD .
The effects of reboxetine on emotional processing in healthy volunteers: an fMRI study
Recent neuropsychological studies in healthy volunteers suggest that antidepressants enhance the processing of positive emotional information . However , the neural substrates underpinning these changes have not been fully eluci date d. The current study , therefore , used functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI ) to map brain systems activated during successful categorization and subsequent recognition of self-referent positive and negative personality characteristics in healthy volunteers following short-term ( 7 days ) repeated administration of the selective noradrenergic reuptake inhibitor reboxetine .  Twenty-four healthy volunteers were r and omly assigned to 7-day double-blind intervention with reboxetine or placebo . On day 7 , neural responses during the categorization and subsequent recognition of positive and negative characteristics were assessed using fMRI . Question naires monitoring mood , hostility and anxiety were given before and during this intervention . During categorization , reboxetine was associated with greater activation to positive words , relative to negative words , in left precuneus and right inferior frontal gyrus . By contrast , at subsequent recognition reboxetine was associated with reduced response to positive words , relative to negative words , in left precuneus , anterior cingulate and medial frontal gyrus . These changes in the neural processing of positive and negative words occurred in the absence of significant differences in ratings of mood and anxiety . Such adaptations in the neural processing of emotional information support the hypothesis that antidepressants have early effects on emotional processing in a manner which would be expected to reverse negative biases in depression
The available evidence suggests the early changes in cognition may predict treatment response in individuals with MDD .
The results depict an emerging trend towards early changes in facial emotion recognition ( i.e. , a hot cognitive process ) as a predictor of treatment outcome .
Conclusion : The identification of reliable early treatment predictors of antidepressant response would be clinical ly significant , enabling clinicians to more accurately evaluate the efficacy of selected treatment avenues .
HIGHLIGHTSCognitive dysfunction is a principal feature and determinant of health outcome in MDD.Cognitive changes have shown to occur prior to improvements in mood symptoms .
Early changes in emotional processing may predict treatment response in MDD
Background : Despite the widespread use of antidepressants in clinical practice , the current trial‐ and ‐error approach to medication selection contributes to treatment failure and underscores the need to identify reliable predictors of antidepressant response .
Since changes in measures of cognition have been reported to occur early in treatment and prior to improvements in overall mood symptoms , the present review aims to determine whether early changes in measures of cognition can predict response in individuals with MDD .