Major depression (MDD) and social anxiety (SAD) disorders are debilitating psychiatric conditions characterized by disturbed interpersonal relationships. Despite these impairments in social relationships, research has been limited in simultaneously evaluating the dysfunction in MDD or SAD within two aspects of theory of mind (ToM): decoding mental states (i.e., Affective ToM) and reasoning mental states (i.e., cognitive ToM). Taking this into consideration, the current study assesses both decoding and reasoning mental states abilities in MDD, SAD, and healthy controls (HC). Subjects included 37 patients with MDD, 35 patients with SAD, and 35 HCs. ToM was measured with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) and the Faux Pas Task, which assess decoding and reasoning mental states, respectively. Results revealed that in decoding of mental states, both the SAD and MDD groups had lower scores than the HC group; there was no significant difference between the SAD and MDD groups in decoding mental states. Conversely, in reasoning mental states, the SAD and HC groups had higher scores than the MDD group; no differences were found between the SAD and HC groups. Clinicians and researchers should further consider parsing generalized impairment in ToM into two aspects: decoding and reasoning of mental states by using the aforementioned measurements. By further understanding the two aspects, we can create a potentially new clinical profile for mental health disorders, such as in this context with both decoding and reasoning mental state impairment in MDD and just a decoding impairment in SAD.

中文翻译：

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解码和推理重度抑郁症和社交焦虑症的心理状态


重度抑郁症 (MDD) 和社交焦虑症 (SAD) 是一种令人衰弱的精神疾病，其特征是人际关系紊乱。尽管社会关系存在这些障碍，但同时评估 MDD 或 SAD 心理理论 (ToM) 两个方面的功能障碍的研究仍受到限制：解码心理状态（即情感 ToM）和推理心理状态（即认知 ToM） 。考虑到这一点，当前的研究评估了 MDD、SAD 和健康对照组 (HC) 的解码和推理心理状态能力。受试者包括 37 名 MDD 患者、35 名 SAD 患者和 35 名 HC。 ToM 通过“眼中读心”测试 (RMET) 和“失礼任务”进行测量，分别评估解码和推理心理状态。结果显示，在心理状态解码方面，SAD组和MDD组得分均低于HC组； SAD组和MDD组在解码心理状态方面没有显着差异。相反，在推理心理状态方面，SAD和HC组的得分高于MDD组； SAD 组和 HC 组之间没有发现差异。临床医生和研究人员应进一步考虑将 ToM 中的广义损伤解析为两个方面：通过使用上述测量来解码和推理心理状态。通过进一步了解这两个方面，我们可以为精神健康障碍创建一个潜在的新临床概况，例如在这种情况下，MDD 中同时存在解码和推理精神状态障碍，而 SAD 中仅存在解码障碍。