Neuropsychological differentiation of depression and anxiety

The high comorbidity of depression and anxiety is well established empirica lly but not well understood conceptually, in terms of either psychological or biological mechanisms. A neuropsychological model of regional brain acti vity in emotion provides contrasting hypotheses for depression and anxiety, with depression associated with a relative decrease and anxiety with a rel ative increase in right-posterior activity. These hypotheses received suppo rt in a comparison of individuals diagnosed with depression and community c ontrols, and also in a separate study of nonpatients administered a measure of perceptual asymmetry. Hierarchical regressions revealed that depression and anxiety were uniquely and jointly associated with perceptual asymmetry . In light of consistent empirical support for the model, implications for conceptualizations of the comorbidity of depression and anxiety are discuss ed.