The Role of Distress Tolerance in Cognitive Control Training for Dysphoria

Abstract

Cognitive Control Training (CCT) is an area of research which has been hypothesized as a way to decrease symptoms of depression. The purpose of this study was to replicate the results found by others using the PASAT, and to examine potential mechanisms behind the effects of CCT, particularly the role of distress tolerance. Seventy-two participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions, a waitlist control, and 2 treatment conditions. Participants in the treatment conditions were given an electronic tablet to practice the attention task over a 2 week period. One condition was paced and time-pressured, the other was self-paced and developed to be less stressful (an active control). There was not a significant effect of condition when examining differences in depressive symptoms; however, the active control condition showed increases in distress tolerance, compared to the waitlist control condition.