Risky decision-making in major depressive disorder: a three-level meta-analysis

• Jiaqi Lu ^[1] ; Xu Zhao ^[1] ; Xuxuan Wei ^[1] ; Guibing He ^[1]
  1. [1] Zhejiang University

     Zhejiang University

     China

     
• Localización: International journal of clinical and health psychology, ISSN 1697-2600, Vol. 24, Nº. 1, 2024, págs. 61-70
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Background Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) are usually observed making inappropriate risky decisions. However, whether and to what extent MDD is associated with impairments in risky decision-making remains unclear. We performed a three-level meta-analysis to explore the relationship between risky decision-making and MDD.

    Method We searched the Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and PsycINFO databases up to February 7, 2023, and calculated Hedges' g to demonstrate the difference in risky decision-making between MDD patients and healthy controls (HCs). The moderating effect of sample and task characteristics were also revealed.

    Results Across 73 effect sizes in 39 cross-sectional studies, MDD patients exhibited greater risk-seeking than HCs (Hedges' g = 0.187, p = .030). Furthermore, age (p = .068), region (p = .005), and task type (p < .001) were found to have moderating effects. Specifically, patients preferred risk-seeking over HCs as age increased. European patients showed significantly increased risk-seeking compared to American and Asian patients. Patients in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) exhibited a notable rise in risk-seeking compared to other tasks, along with an increased risk aversion in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). The multiple-moderator analysis showed that only task type had significant effects, which may be explained by a tentative framework of "operationalization-mechanism-measure" specificity.

    Conclusions MDD patients generally exhibit higher risk-seeking than HCs. It implies that impaired risky decision-making might be a noteworthy symptom of depression, which should be placed more emphasis for clinical management and psycho-education.