Study Reveals: Recovered Depression Patients Still Fixate on Negatives

Depressed Individuals Maintain Focus on Negatives Even After Recovery, a study finds. Recovered depression patients focus more on negatives and less on positives, raising their risk of relapse compared to never-sufferers.

Lead author Alainna Wen, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at the Anxiety and Depression Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, said, “Our research indicates that individuals with a previous history of depression dedicate a significant amount of time to analyzing negative stimuli, such as expressions of sadness, in comparison to positive stimuli like displays of happiness. This contrast is more pronounced when compared to emotionally healthy individuals with no such history. This divergence in processing suggests a heightened susceptibility to potential future depressive episodes. This susceptibility arises from the inherent nature of depression, which involves an abundance of negative thoughts and emotions, coupled with a scarcity of positive ones.”

The Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science published the research.

One of the most prevalent mental illnesses in the US is major depression. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 21 million American people (8.4% of the country’s population) reported having had serious depression at least once in 2020. Major depression can hinder or limit a person’s capacity to do important life tasks. It is characterized by a minimum of two weeks of a gloomy mood or a lack of interest in or enjoyment from daily activities.

Wen reports that relapse rates for major depressive disorder remain high despite the availability of effective therapies. After their first major depressive episode, over 50% of people will go on to have several episodes, and they frequently relapse within two years of getting better. Researchers must understand risk factors better to improve treatment and prevent recurrence of major depressive illness.

Research on Depressed Individuals

Researchers analyzed 44 trials with 2,285 healthy controls and 2,081 patients with severe depression for this study. Every study looked at how quickly people responded to neutral, positive, or negative stimuli. In several instances, participants were requested to press a separate button to represent a happy, sad, or neutral human face. In other cases, participants responded to favorable, unfavorable, or neutral words.

Healthy participants reacted faster to all stimuli types than those with a history of depression, regardless of stimulus type. However, compared to controls, individuals who had previously experienced major depressive disorder took longer to process unpleasant emotional cues. When compared to individuals in major depression remission, healthy controls showed a significant difference in the amount of time they spent processing positive versus negative emotional stimuli; however, this difference did not show up when comparing the amount of time spent processing positive versus neutral or negative versus neutral stimuli.

Conclusion

Wen finds recurrent depression leads to a stronger negative bias and poorer information management compared to healthy individuals.

“The results of this study have implications for depressed people’s treatment,” Wen stated. Merely centering on diminishing the analysis of negative data might not be adequate to avert a relapse of depression. Alternatively, approaches that enhance the processing of positive information could prove advantageous for patients.”