Invisible side effects: Past depression can make you see the world differently

Focusing on the positives may be as crucial as reducing negative factors in preventing relapse, a study suggests.

People who have overcome a major depressive episode often spend more time dwelling on negative information and less on positive aspects than those who have never experienced such an episode. This pattern could put them at risk of relapse, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association.

Our results suggest that people with a history of depression spend more time processing negative information, such as sad faces, than positive information, such as happy faces, and that this difference is greater than people in good health. health without a history, said lead author Alainna. Wen, Ph.D., postdoctoral researcher at the Anxiety and Depression Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since more negative and less positive thoughts and mood are characteristic of depression, this could mean that these people are at greater risk of experiencing another depressive episode.

The research was published in theJournal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science.

Prevalence and impact of major depression

Major depression is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States. In 2020, approximately 21 million American adults reported at least one case of major depression (8.4% of the U.S. population), according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Defined as a period of at least two weeks of depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities, major depression can interfere with or limit a person’s ability to carry out major life activities. life.

Despite well-established treatments for depression, relapse rates for major depressive disorder remain high, according to Wen. More than 50% of people with a first major depressive episode will experience subsequent episodes, often relapsing within two years of recovery. Thus, more knowledge is needed about the risk factors involved in major depressive disorder to improve treatment and prevent relapses.

Methodology and results of the study

For this article, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 44 studies involving 2,081 participants with a history of major depressive disorder and 2,285 healthy controls. All studies examined participants’ response times to negative, positive, or neutral stimuli. In some cases, participants were shown a happy, sad, or neutral human face and asked to press a different button for each. In others, participants reacted to positive, negative or neutral comments.

Healthy participants as a group responded more quickly to emotional and non-emotional stimuli than participants with a history of depression, regardless of whether those stimuli were positive, neutral, or negative. However, participants with previous major depressive disorder spent more time processing negative emotional stimuli than positive stimuli compared to controls. While healthy controls showed a significant difference in time spent processing positive and negative emotional stimuli compared to those in remission from major depression, this distinction did not appear when comparing time spent processing emotional stimuli. negative and neutral or positive and neutral stimuli.

Overall, the results suggest that individuals with recurrent major depressive disorder are not only less able to control the information they process than healthy individuals, but also display a greater tendency to focus on negative information rather than positive or neutral information, according to Wen.

The current findings have implications for treating depression, Wen said. Focusing solely on reducing the processing of negative information may not be enough to prevent depression relapse. Instead, patients may also benefit from strategies aimed at increasing the processing of positive information.

Reference: Biased cognitive control of emotional information in remitted depression: A meta-analytic review by Alainna Wen, Ethan Ray Fischer, David Watson and K Lira Yoon, August 21, 2023, Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science.
DOI: 10.1037/abn0000848