(PS11-C65) The Impact of Reward Sensitivity and COVID-19 in the Longitudinal Prediction of Depressive Symptoms

Depression affects over 10% of females and is twice as prevalent in females when compared to males. Major stressors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have increased depressive symptoms in the general population. One indicator of depressive symptoms may be reactivity to rewards, or reward positivity (RewP) as measured using the event related potential (ERP) in the electroencephalogram (EEG). Research suggests a negative association between RewP and depressive symptoms. However, some studies suggest this negative association is between RewP and the affective component of depression (i.e., anhedonia), while other studies have shown a potential positive association between RewP and the cognitive components of depression. Thus, both major stressors and reward sensitivity may account or predict future depressive symptoms. In the current study, we used a longitudinal design to examine depressive symptoms and reward sensitivity in females (N = 161) at time 1 and measured their depressive symptoms two years later at time 2. Approximately one-third of these participants completed the study before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Results revealed that, after controlling for COVID-19 pandemic, there was an interaction between time 1 depressive symptoms and RewP, such that larger depressive symptoms and larger reward positivity at time 1 predicted greater cognitive depressive symptoms at time 2. When exploring this interaction, we found that this interaction effect is only significant for those who reached the threshold cutoff for mild depression. Our results suggest that enhanced reward sensitivity may only impact an increase in cognitive depressive symptoms for those who are already experiencing at least mild overall depressive symptoms. These findings further suggest that interventions targeting reward sensitivity may show greatest impact when targeting those with at least mild depression.