The Effect Of SSRIs On Attentional Bias In Patients With Depression:An Eye-tracking Study

Objective:To investigate the characteristics of attentional bias in patients with depression,evaluate the effect of SSRIs drugs on emotional attentional bias in patients with depression,and analyze the internal mechanism of SSRIs drugs to improve patients’ attentional bias.Methods: Eighteen depressive patients who met the criteria of depression enrollment were selected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University and the Mental Health Center of Anhui Province.Eighteen normal persons matched with age,sex and years of education of depressive patients were recruited as healthy controls.The scores of Hamilton Depression Scale(HAMD)and MoCA Scale were performed on the two groups.Eye movement test of attentional bias was used to analyze the difference of emotional attention bias of depressive patients.Then SSRIs were used to treat depressive patients.Eye movement test was conducted again after 8 weeks of treatment.The results were compared with the scores of patients before treatment,and the effect of drug treatment on attentional bias of depressive patients was analyzed.Result:1.Compared with the healthy control group,the glance duration of the positive pictures in the free viewing task were lower than that of the healthy control group,the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05),the glance duration of the negative picture were higher than the control group,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).The number of fixation in the positive images was less than that in the control group,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).The total fixation time of the positive images was less than that of the control group,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).In the attention transfer task,patients with depression will pay attention to the time required to transfer from negative images to neutral images longer than the control group,the difference was statistically significant(P <0.05).2.After eight weeks of SSRIs drug treatment,the glance duration of positive images were higher than that before treatment(P<0.01)in the free viewing task.The glance duration of the negative pictures were less than before treatment,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).The number of fixation in the positive images was higher than that before treatment,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).The fixation time of positive images was higher than that before treatment,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.01).In the attention shift task,the time required for patients with depression to pay attention to transfer from negative pictures to neutral pictures was less than that before treatment,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.01).Conclusion: 1.Patients with depression have attention bias,which is characterized by less attentional bias to positive emotions and more attention to negative emotions,that is,attentional bias to negative emotions.2.The use of SSRI drugs can effectively improve the negative emotionalal bias of depressive patients,make them pay more attention to positive stimuli,and more easily divert attention from negative stimuli.