This study is an integrative review of literatures of research on emotion processing in depression using facial expression stimuli.

For the review, we searched domestic and international research articles over the past 20 years according to the integrative review procedure and selected the final 19 papers.

The results of the review revealed that depressed people, compared with those who were not depressed, had the following differences. First, they needed longer time for precise processing of emotion. Second, they managed to recognize positive emotion with high intensity while easily recognized negative emotions with low intensity. Third, they tended to overestimate the intensity of negative emotion. Fourth, they showed a negative interpretation bias to ambiguous or neutral facial expressions. Meanwhile, consistent results across the studies were not found for the variable of accuracy.

Our results suggest that it is necessary to develop more elaborate intervention program and design more sophisticated experiment for further coherent understanding of depression.

Fear-avoidance model for pain suggests interpretation bias affects subsequent pain experience. However, limited research has been conducted on the role of interpretation bias in a subjective pain experience. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of interpretation bias modification for pain outcomes (i.e., pain intensity, threshold, and tolerance).

53 healthy university students were randomly assigned to either the training (n=28) or the control group (n=25). Interpretation bias and negative emotion were assessed before and after conducting the interpretation bias modification for pain (IBM-P). During a cold pressor task, pain outcomes were measured.

Results indicated that the training group showed significantly decreased interpretation bias and negative emotion than the control group after the IBM-P. Also, participants in the training group was found to have a greater pain threshold during the cold pressor task than those in the control group. Furthermore, the IBM-P effect on increased pain threshold was mediated by post-interpretational bias. Other pain outcomes and mediating effect of post-interpretational bias on the negative emotion were not significant.

Results highlight that interpretation bias is modifiable and plays an important role in pain outcomes. Thus, using IBM-P for pain patients can be a useful application to alleviate their pain outcomes. Future research should consider the precise role of interpretation bias that affects patient’s pain outcomes.