Tryptophan Depletion and Emotional Processing in Healthy Volunteers at High Risk for Depression
Open accessAbstract
Background Studies in depressed patients have demonstrated the presence of emotional bias toward negative stimuli, as well as dysregulated brain serotonin function. The present study compared the effects of acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) on both an emotional processing and a planning task in never-depressed healthy volunteers at high and low familial risk for depression.Methods Young adults with no personal psychiatric history were stratified into two groups based on family history (n = 25). Participants were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover ATD study and completed the affective go/no-go and Tower of London tasks once during each condition.Results There was a significant treatment by valence by group interaction on the affective go/no-go, driven primarily by a greater frequency of inappropriate responses to sad than to happy distracters in the high-risk group during ATD. No group differences were observed on the Tower of London.Conclusions Asymptomatic individuals at high familial risk for depression showed abnormalities in emotional processing while undergoing experimentally induced tryptophan depletion. These findings support emotional processing disturbances as potential trait-level abnormalities associated with the risk of mood disorder.
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The levels of tryptophan, a precursor of 5-HT, in the blood of patients with depression are decreased compared with those of healthy people.
“The levels of tryptophan, a precursor of 5-HT, in the blood of patients with depression are decreased compared with those of healthy people[46].”
From Neuroinflammation and cytokine abnormality in major depression: cause or consequence in that illness? (2016) · cites this paper as [46]
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- Authors
- Feder, A., Skipper, J., Blair, J. R., Buchholz, K., Mathew, S. J., Schwarz, M., Doucette, J. T., Alonso, A., Collins, K. A., Neumeister, A., & Charney, D. S.
- Affiliations
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Baylor College of Medicine (US)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Feder, Adriana
- ORCID
- Venue
- Biological Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-04
- Volume
- 69
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 804-807
- ISSN
- 0006-3223 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3941748
- OpenAlex
- W2116650724
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 1.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Biological Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Center for Research Resources (MO1-RR00071)
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Alexza Pharmaceuticals
- Novartis
- National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression
- Roche
- Pfizer, Inc.
- Eli Lilly
- UCB Pharma, Inc.
- Ortho-McNeil Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Biological Psychiatry › Tryptophan and brain disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- tryptophan depletion, emotional processing, familial risk for depression, serotonin dysregulation, affective go/no-go task, Tower of London, planning, mood disorders, healthy volunteers
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Cognition, Depressive Disorder, Double-Blind Method, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Tryptophan, Cross-Over Studies
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