Inhibitory Control in Individuals with Clinical Levels of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms

Abstract

Previous research has shown that individuals suffering from depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) seem to have inhibitory control de!cits compared with healthy controls. However, few studies have been conducted in Spanish-speaking countries. Thus, this study aims to analyze the performance on the Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT) between groups of Colombian participants with clinical levels of depression andGADsymptoms and a nonclinical control group. According to previous research, we expected to !nd signi!cant differences in inhibitory control among groups. An ex post facto design was implemented. TheSCWTwas administered to a total sample of 105 individuals (64.8% women,M= 22.94 years, SD=4.62), including 27 depressed and 15 anxious participants according to their scores on the Personal Health Questionnaire–9 and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder–7, respectively. Bayesian t-tests showed that depressed participants showed the same processing speed but lower scores on inhibitory control than healthy controls, BF =13.70, != 0.50, 95% CI [0.08, 0.94]. Conversely, anxious participants showed de!cits in processing speed, SCWT-Word: BF = 16.19, ! =0.68, 95% CI [0.15, 1.24]; SCWT-Color: BF = 5.98, ! =0.50, 95% CI [–0.01, 1.04], but not in inhibitory control compared with the nonanxious counterparts. This study provides preliminary evidence concerning the inhibitory control deficits in Colombian depressed individuals and processing speed de!cits in those experiencing clinical levels of GAD symptoms.