Ninety-nine Chinese women aged 21–60 gave written informed consent to participate in the study. Among them, 50 were recruited from both the in-patient and out-patient units of a major psychiatric hospital in Hong Kong. All had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) consistent with the diagnostic criteria for MDD and without psychotic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical features according to the criteria listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV,

American Psychiatric Association 1994). All had also scored 14 or above on the Chinese version of the Beck depression inventory-II (BDI-II, Chinese Behavioral Sciences Society 2000). The diagnosis was further confirmed by the Chinese Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical version of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric

selleck chemical Interview (MINI, Sheehan et al. 1998). Information on comorbidity was obtained from patients’ medical notes and from the Chinese version of the MINI. Patients were excluded if they had histories of physical or psychiatric Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical illnesses—including organic brain disorders, traumatic brain injuries, substance abuse or dependence disorders, psychotic disorders, or mental retardation—that might have affected cognitive functioning. Patients who had received electroconvulsive therapy within six months prior to this study were also excluded from participation. In the MDD group, 28 patients had general anxiety disorder and 34 suffered from dysthymia. The healthy group consisted of 49 healthy Chinese women free from any

history of psychiatric disorders or medical illnesses affecting cognitive functioning and who were recruited from the community. The MDD group and the healthy group were matched for age (MDD group Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical mean ± SD: 45.50 ± 9.28; healthy group: 43.74 ± 8.74) and years of education (MDD group: 8.96 ± 3.39; healthy group: 8.23 ± 2.94, Ps Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical > 0.1). Experimental task This study’s design was adapted from the trust game (McCabe et al. 2001; King-Casas et al. 2005, 2008). Unlike the traditional trust-reciprocity game, this game has all participants play as trustees; in this study, the counterpart of the participant always played the role of investor. Although we used a computer program to play the counterpart, the participants these were informed that the investor was a real person, a woman, and that there was a new investor per trial. The experimental task started with the investor giving the participant (the trustee) x amount of money to invest, which appreciated by N times. The investor then asked the participant to return a certain percentage of this appreciated amount (R) to her, that is, (R×N×x). The participant was supposed to return the exact amount as per the request of the counterpart. The appreciated investment (N×x) was displayed during the task for the participant’s reference.