A study published in the American Journal of Pschiatry 2009 by Harper et al revealed :
Antidepressant drug administration modulates emotional processing very early on in treatment before changes occur in mood and symptom improvement.
Evidence suggests that depressed patients are more likely to remember negative than positive emotional information.
Previous studies in depressed individuals report reduced recognition of positive facial expressions and /or increased recognition of aversive facial expressions.
Negative biases in information processing in depression and anxiety are often the explicit targets for CBT – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. The reduction of biases towards aversive information are often attributed to mood improvement but results of the study show that antidepressants change emotional processing and memory very early on in treatment and before the improvement in mood occurs.
