A daily diary study that looked at the relationship between different symptoms of depression found that higher levels of sleep disturbance, sad mood, and difficulty concentrating were associated with higher levels of several different symptoms the next day. Those with higher levels of anhedonia, anxiety, and difficulty concentrating tended to experience a broader range of depressive symptoms. The paper was published in. British Journal of Psychology.
Depression is a mental health condition characterized by persistent low mood or loss of interest or enjoyment, which interferes with daily life. It’s different from normal sadness. This is because the symptoms usually last for most of the day, almost every day, for at least two weeks. People with depression may feel sad, empty, hopeless, or unusually irritable. You may lose interest in activities you previously enjoyed and withdraw from others.
Depression can cause a variety of symptoms. For example, common symptoms include fatigue, low energy, decreased motivation, and difficulty performing daily tasks. Cognitive symptoms include difficulty concentrating, indecision, slow thinking, and memory problems. Physical and behavioral symptoms include trouble sleeping, changes in appetite or weight, restlessness, or unusually slow movements or speech. Some people experience feelings of worthlessness, excessive guilt, and pessimism about the future. In more severe cases, depression may be accompanied by thoughts of death, self-harm, and suicide.
Study author Megan E. Quinn and her colleagues conducted a study to identify patterns in the co-occurrence of depressive symptoms. They wanted to better understand how symptoms of depression occur in relation to each other. In particular, they wanted to identify which symptoms predict and potentially trigger each other on a daily basis, and which symptoms tend to occur together on the same day or throughout the month.
Participants in the study were 363 undergraduate students. The average age of participants was 19 years. Of these, 61 percent were women. They were recruited from among undergraduate researchers at the College of William & Mary, a university in the eastern United States, and received course credit in exchange for their participation.
At the beginning of the study, participants provided demographic data and completed a rating of depressive symptom severity. After this, they began the 28-day daily diary portion of the study, during which they took a brief questionnaire about symptoms of depression each day. Each day at 7 a.m., participants received a survey and were asked to respond based on their mood the previous day.
On average, participants completed 82% of the 28 daily diaries. Based on the baseline assessment, 43% of participants were characterized as not having depression, 31% as having mild depression, and 26% as having mild to severe depression. The most commonly reported symptom over 28 days was anxiety, followed by difficulty concentrating or indecisiveness, sleep disturbances, fatigue, and psychomotor symptoms. Suicidal ideation was the least common.
Analyzing the relationships between symptoms, researchers found that higher levels of sleep disturbance, sad mood, and difficulty concentrating on a given day were associated with higher levels of several different symptoms the next day. When looking at symptoms that occurred on the exact same day, sad mood, anhedonia (inability to feel joy), and fatigue tended to occur at the same time as many other symptoms.
Comparing different participants across a month-long period, the results showed that those with higher average levels of anhedonia, anxiety, sad mood, and difficulty concentrating tended to experience a broader range of depressive symptoms overall.
“These findings highlight the complexity of the interplay of depressive symptoms and highlight how depression may manifest. Future research should examine the relationships identified to uncover causal relationships between symptoms and trait-level vulnerability to symptoms,” the study authors concluded.
This study contributes to scientific knowledge about depression. However, it should be noted that the study participants were undergraduate students, and most of them were not depressed or showed only mild symptoms of depression. Findings may differ for other demographics and age groups or for patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
The paper, “The Relationship Between Everyday Symptoms of Depression,” was authored by Megan E. Quinn, Mary E. Kleinman, John P. Standring, and Kiming Liu.
