Response to Uncertainty and Social Threat: Impact on Mental Health (RUSH) Study Protocol.

Depression is frequently treatment-resistant, and its etiological underpinnings remain poorly understood. Chronic systemic inflammation may drive difficult-to-treat cases, yet prospective naturalistic studies among non-depressed individuals are needed to inform etiology and prevention. This protocol describes the Response to Uncertainty and Social Threat: Impact on Mental Health (RUSH) Study, a multi-week naturalistic stress paradigm comparing current sorority members (controls) to recruits experiencing social-evaluative threat-representing the first naturalistic test of the Social Signal Tran