Is dysphoria about being red and blue? Potentiation of anger and reduced distress tolerance among dysphoric individuals

Abstract

Emotion dysregulation has been implicated in a variety of psychopathologies including depression. However, few empirical studies with depressed samples have been completed, particularly involving negative emotions such as anger. The current study explored two aspects of emotion regulation by testing dysphoric individuals' emotional reactivity and ability to tolerate distress. Specifically, stably dysphoric (n=28) and non-dysphoric (n=35) individuals participated in two distressing laboratory tasks, the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT) and the Mirror Tracing Persistence Task (MTPT). The dysphoric group reported greater anger following each task and displayed less distress tolerance on the MTPT than the non-dysphoric group. Findings suggest that sad mood can potentiate anger and reduce distress tolerance. Results are consistent with the idea that difficulty regulating negative emotional states may contribute to the maintenance of dysphoria.

Keywords:

• Dysphoria
• Depression
• Emotion regulation
• Distress tolerance
• Anger

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Carl Lejuez and David Strong for their help with the PASAT and MTPT tasks and the research assistants of the Mood Disorders Laboratory at the University of Texas for their help with data collection.