Romantic relationship breakup and mood changes

Upsetting life-events are known to be risk factors for the development of depressive symptoms. Possibly, individual differences in coping with upsetting events can (partly) explain individual differences in vulnerability for developing depressive symptoms. In this study we will follow subjects with a recent relationship breakup for a period of 30 weeks and assess symptoms of depression over time. Studying people who have just experienced the breakup of a relationship will allow us to investigate mood disturbances, and associated brain alterations, in individuals without a psychiatric disorder. Subjects come three times to our laboratory to fill in questionnaires and perform cognitive tasks. The last visit includes an fMRI scanning session. In between the three visits, subjects will complete a brief online questionnaire concerning depressive symptoms every two weeks. We investigate trajectories of depressive symptom change following the relationship breakup, effects of trait rumination and neuroticism on cognitive control abilities, reward-related processes and resting state brain activity including rumination-related brain activity patterns. This way, we can provide new insights into factors that play a role in dealing with upsetting events and vulnerability factors for the development of depressive symptoms.

We investigate: (1) whether young women can be grouped according to distinct trajectories of depressive symptom change, measured with the Major Depression Inventory (MDI), over a period of 8 months following the breakup of a romantic relationship; (2) effects of trait rumination and neuroticism on cognitive control abilities among the different trajectory groups; (3) whether processing of reward and punishment can be seen as a marker of the different trajectory groups; (4) to what extent patterns of brain activity can be used to distinguish group trajectory membership; (5) differences in rumination-related brain activity patterns across trajectory groups and to what extent these differences can be explained by rumination trait, rumination state or both; (6) the impact and/or confound of task-related effects on the participants` baseline resting-state.

The first visit (T1) will be planned as soon as possible after the subject decides to participate in the study (max. 1 month after the breakup). The second visit (T9) takes place 16 weeks (+/- 1 week) after T1. The third visit (T16) takes place 30 weeks (+3 weeks) after T1. In between the three visits, subjects will complete a brief online questionnaire every two weeks (T2-T8 and T10-T15).

Subjects will fill in questionnaires and perform cognitive tasks during three visits in this study. In addition, subjects will receive an invitation to a brief online questionnaire concerning depressive symptoms every two weeks. During the last visit, subjects will also undergo MRI scanning. During the fMRI session, subjects perform the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task and undergo scanning while resting.