The Effect of Emotional Working Memory Training on Reducing Depressive Symptoms

The Effect of Emotional Working Memory Training on Reducing Depressive Symptoms

The purpose of this study is to test whether emotional working memory training and attention bias modification training are an effective neurobehavioral therapy to improve depressive symptoms.That is whether emotional working memory training is superior to attention bias modification training or not in reducing depressive symptoms over 1 year after training.

Attentional bias has been theorized to play a critical role in the onset and maintenance of depression. Attentional bias modification training (ABMT), an experimental paradigm that uses training to induce adaptive attentional bias, was developed to test the causal model and this has therapeutic implications in depression.To test the effect of ABMT on treatment of depressive symptoms, a randomized, double-blind, placebo and blank controlled trial is conducted in college students who are experiencing mild-to-severe symptoms of depression.

Inclusion Criteria:

Meet the major and mild depression disorder's criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or organic mental disorder; any concurrent psychotherapy; any concurrent psychotropic medication.