Social interaction predictors of symptom change in major depression (B05)

• Subject Area: Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 521379614

Socio-affective processes, like empathic affect sharing, connect individual emotions to social interaction partners. The project provides an in-depth understanding of social network predictors of disease trajectories in depression using multiple methods in both experimental and naturalistic settings. The study focuses on 200 dyads of depressed patients/healthy controls and their partners, examining the impact of negative affect transmission across multiple biological pathways on depressive symptom changes. Findings aim to reveal the role of maladaptive social interactions in depression, informing personalized interventions.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 393: Trajectories of Affective Disorders: Cognitive-emotional Mechanisms of Symptom Change
• Applicant Institution: Philipps-Universität Marburg
• Project Heads: Professorin Nina Alexander, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Philipp Kanske