The interaction between emotion and cognition in depression and anxiety: A review article

Emotion-cognition relationships and related brain mechanisms are receiving increasing attention in the clinical research literature as a means of understanding diverse types of psychopathology and improving biological and psychological treatments. Emotion-cognition interactions gone awry can lead to clinically significant levels of anxiety and depression. For example, anxiety and depression are characterized by information-processing biases and cognitive dysfunction, which appear to contribute to the onset and/or maintenance of symptoms, including persistent negative affect and poor emotion regulation. Numerous interventions, both psychological and biological, have been developed to target disruptions in cognition and emotional interactions associated with anxiety and depression. As reviewed above, anxiety and depression are associated with impaired executive control, dysfunctional relationships among cognitive and emotional processes, and abnormal activity in brain regions that are part of networks implementing these processes. Psychological/behavioral, pharmacological, and direct physiological interventions have been shown to reduce emotional symptoms, decrease negative thoughts and beliefs, and alter maladaptive motivational and behavioral styles. This paper reviews some of the growing evidence for cognitive-emotion processes in depression and anxiety, and how these factors interact with each other appear to be involved.

Keywords:

Emotion , Cognition , Depression , Anxiety , Interaction