ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Minerva Psychiatry 2023 Jan 27

DOI: 10.23736/S2724-6612.22.02399-5

Copyright © 2022 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Exploring sex-specific affect processing and depression-anxiety comorbidity in a gender-inequitable country

Varsha SINGH ¹ ✉, Suraj KUMAR ², Ankit JHA ³, Rohit VERMA ⁴

¹ Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India; ² School of Interdisciplinary Research, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India; ³ UQ-IITD Academy of Research, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India; ⁴ Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

BACKGROUND: Depression and anxiety co-occurrence is higher in females. The pandemic created environmental stress, imposing physical and socioeconomic restrictions worldwide. This study examined sex-specificity in self-reported affect symptoms, affect states and underlying valence processing. The gender-neutral socioeconomic restrictions in a gender-inequitable country might expose the risk of affective disorder.
METHODS: This study used a snowball sample to collect data via a web-based survey. The International-Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Short Form (I-PANAS-SF) assessed the affect (mood), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used for self-assessed depression, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) for self-assessed anxiety and high arousal affect pictures from the International Affect Picture System (IAPS) database assessed affective valence processing (negative, positive, neutral).
RESULTS: A total of 158 complete responses were analyzed. A higher proportion of females reported depression-anxiety co-occurrence; the negative mood was linked with comorbidity for both the sexes. Affective valence processing showed sex-specificity, and healthy females (absence of depression and anxiety) showed hypersensitivity to negative valence. In contrast, hypersensitivity to positive valence was observed in the female group of depression-anxiety comorbidity. No such pattern emerged for male participants.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate affective valence processing as a critical factor in sex differences in affective disorders. In contrast, a prevailing negative affect state/mood might be a sex-neutral marker for depression-anxiety comorbidity, making it a clinically relevant factor.

KEY WORDS: Affective disorders, psychotic; Comorbidity; Mood disorders; Sex characteristics; Affect