| 【Abstract】 Background Patients with depression often exhibit impaired decision-making functions. The relationship between decision-making abilities and depressive and anxiety symptoms in patients with depression remains unclear. Objective To explore the decision-making behavior characteristics of patients with depression and analyze their relationship with clinical symptoms. Methods The study included 48 patients diagnosed with depression according to DSM-IV criteria, seen at the Psychosomatic Medicine Department of the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from October 2020 to May 2023, as the depression group. A control group of 52 volunteers, matched for age and gender, was recruited in Luzhou. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) assessed depressive and anxiety symptoms. The Probabilistic Reversal Learning (PRL) task evaluated decision-making behaviors, analyzing indicators such as trials to criterion, perseverative errors, win-stay rate, and lose-shift rate. Spearman correlation analysis was used to assess the correlation between BDI and BAI scores and PRL indicators. Results The depression group showed a significantly higher lose-shift rate than the control group (t=3.684, P<0.01). There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in trials to criterion, perseverative errors, and win-stay rate (t=0.329, 0.132, 0.609; all P>0.05). The correlation analysis showed that BDI and BAI scores were positively correlated with the win-stay rate in patients with depression(r=0.450, 0.398; both P<0.01). Conclusion Patients with depression are more inclined to change their choice strategies when faced with negative outcomes. The more severe their depressive and anxiety symptoms, the more likely they are to maintain existing decisions after receiving positive feedback.
【Keywords】Major depressive disorder; Decision behavior; Probability reversal learning; Depression and anxiety symptoms |