ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2011) — Researchers have for decades hypothesized that negative emotions lead to inflated reports of common physical symptoms, like headaches or an upset stomach. but a new University of Iowa study suggests that two negative emotions — depression and anxiety — influence symptom reporting in different ways.

Published in the latest issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the study indicates that people who feel depressed report experiencing a higher number of past symptoms. People who feel anxious, by contrast, report more symptoms in the present moment.

Understanding how factors such as mood influence symptom reporting is important because physicians make diagnosis and treatment decisions based on the symptoms patients report, how intense they are, and how frequently they occurred, said study author Jerry Suls, a professor of psychology in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a visiting scientist at the National Cancer Institute in Washington, D.C.

Previous studies have linked inflated symptom reports to "negative affect," a disposition also known as neuroticism. One-fifth of the population is believed to have this general tendency, which involves frequent feelings of anger, anxiety, fear, irritation or sadness. however, when the UI researchers examined the influence of temperament on symptom recall, they isolated each emotion rather than lumping them together.

"our data suggest that a person who walks into a physician’s office feeling sad will tend to recall experiencing more symptoms than they probably really did," Suls said. "if a person comes into the physician’s office feeling fearful, they’re more likely to scan their body and read any sensations they’re experiencing at that moment as something wrong. We believe this is because depression is associated with rumination and exaggerated recall of negative experiences, while anxiety is associated with vigilance for potentially negative things in the present time."

Suls co-authored the study with Bryant Howren, a post-doctoral scholar in the UI Department of Psychology and the Center for Research in the Implementation of Innovative Strategies in Practice (CRIISP) at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City.

In the first part of the study, 144 undergraduate students completed questionnaires to assess their level of "depressive affect," and indicated which of 15 common physical symptoms they’d experienced in the past three weeks. Even after factoring out physical signs of depression, like appetite changes or sleep loss, researchers found that people who felt more depressed believed they had experienced more symptoms.

"is it possible they actually did experience more symptoms? sure," Suls said. "but all of these folks were nominally healthy. It’s likely that each one experienced roughly the same number in terms of actual symptoms, but those who happened to be feeling blue thought they had experienced more."

Another phase of the study examined current symptom reporting. a sample of 125 undergraduates were assigned to groups. To induce a specific mood, each group wrote in detail for 15 minutes about an experience that made them feel angry, anxious, depressed, happy or neutral. They then completed a checklist to indicate which of 24 symptoms (weakness/fatigue, cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal) they currently felt. Participants in the anxious mood category reported higher numbers of physical symptoms.

"People could say, ‘Well, you made them anxious — isn’t that going to produce a physiologic reaction, like a pounding heart or sweaty palms?’" Suls said. "but we observed a general increase in all current physical symptoms — fatigue, for example, which isn’t typically a consequence of feeling fearful or nervous."

Researchers repeated the writing exercise with another group of 120 students — only this time they asked participants to report both current and retrospective symptoms. On average, people in the anxious group reported five current symptoms, while those in the depressed and neutral groups only reported one or two. Reflecting on the past three weeks, the sad participants reported experiencing seven symptoms on average, while the other groups only recalled about three.

"making people feel sad didn’t influence what they reported feeling at the moment, but it was associated with reporting having had more symptoms in the recent past," Suls said. "With anxiety, we saw exactly the opposite. They didn’t report more symptoms over the past three weeks, but at the moment they reported more."

Suls and Howren aren’t encouraging health care providers to discount symptoms by virtue of the patient’s mood. They do, however, encourage medical professionals to be aware that different emotions appear to play into how patients perceive their current and past symptoms.

"Ideally, a doctor would engage with the patient briefly to get a sense whether they’re experiencing anxiety or sadness at the time of the visit," Suls said. "In some cases, it may be worthwhile to ask a significant other what they’ve observed in terms of symptoms, or to ask the patient to keep a symptom diary to ensure accuracy."

The age of participants was a limitation of the study, though the authors intentionally chose healthy college students to reduce confounds. Other studies indicate that emotional instability (such as depressed or anxious moods) decreases around age 40, so older adults may be less subject to recall or encoding biases associated with physical symptoms. Suls and Howren will focus future symptom-reporting research on older or chronically ill adults.

The research was supported in part by a National Institute on Aging grant awarded to Suls and a post-doctoral fellowship from the VA awarded to Howren.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Iowa Health Care.

Journal Reference:

1. M. Bryant Howren, Jerry Suls. The symptom perception hypothesis revised: Depression and anxiety play different roles in concurrent and retrospective physical symptom reporting.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011; 100 (1): 182 DOI: 10.1037/a0021715

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Depression, the emotional disease which is often characterized by continuous durations associated with unhappiness along with sadness, professionals in the area associated with psychiatry say.

But simply because one person is actually moping about and just generally disliking the planet close to him or her, does not imply that it’s by now despression symptoms, but when this kind of habits, the sensation of emptiness, loss in self-worth as well as simply no hope for happiness merely proceeds and on, next, of course, see your face is incredibly a lot, without a doubt, stressed out.

Nevertheless, there are various forms of depressive disorders, via Manic or perhaps The illness depressive disorder * characterized by unexpected as well as excessive adjustments to one’s feeling wherein 1 minute they are in an improved state associated with euphoria even though the following second (evening or perhaps 7 days) he or she is sensation to stay in an individual hell, Postpartum depressive disorders : seen as an a prolonged despair plus a feeling of avoid by way of a brand new new mother in which actual strain through giving birth, a great unclear sense regarding responsibility for the fresh born child could be just some of your achievable reasons why newer and more effective new mother move through this, Dysthimia : characterized by a slight similarity along with depression, even though this occasion, it is often proven to be a lot less severe, in reality using any kind of circumstance, should be dealt with quickly, Cyclothemia — seen as an hook likeness together with Manic or even Bipolar depressive disorders when the individual suffering from this particular emotional disease might at times suffer from severe adjustments to a person’s emotions, In season Affective Condition * seen as slipping in the mentality only in the course of specific seasons (my partner and i.e. Wintertime, Springtime, Summer time as well as Drop) scientific studies nevertheless, confirm more and more people in fact fall right ditch more throughout the Wintertime and Slide seasons not only that, Moodiness, when a person’s disposition may shift through happy to unhappy for you to furious in a short period of time.

Clinical depression nonetheless, or perhaps as a few may call up while ‘major’ depressive disorder, is definitely the health-related phrase for despression symptoms. truly clinical depression is a lot more of an disorder rather than a sickness mainly because it essentially addresses the few who are suffering through signs or symptoms associated with depressive disorder. Clinical depression is the place doctors typically talk about “depression” while giving a new identify with their patient. It is basically just the health-related term.

However, in spite of as an true problem, Clinical depression may be dealt with. Doctors are in fact very positive that their sufferers that suffer via Specialized medical problem will likely be effectively on their way in direction of very good mental wellbeing providing that they handled after they’ve been identified as having Clinical depression. People who have been seeking for therapies for Clinical depression are actually rather productive inside their mission, considering the fact that 80 % of genuine Clinical depression individuals are actually treated and has to some degree observed relief from their problem.

For individuals who might be searching for a few responses for their Clinical depression associated concerns, the particular depression portion of the wellness heart is extremely suggested, and also textbooks about psychiatry and also the internet – which can provide a lot of tips with regards to Depression although self-medication/treatment is especially disapproved of. Clinical depression may not create as much as a danger since the other forms of despression symptoms, but it’s best to allow the particular fingers associated with professionals who can without danger deal with and also treat this particular dysfunction.

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would these be signs of anorexia?
-headaches
-dizzyness
-naucious/car sick feeling often
-feeling lazy
-feeling tired a lot
-constantly comparing body to others
-people say they're skinny, but they swear they're not
-critisizing other body parts that don't have anything to do with weight or being fat
-skipping meals (but still eating, not as much)
-moodiness
-sadness

out of all those symptoms you only needed to put down 2
constantly comparing body to others
people say they're skinny, but they swear they're not
yes there may be an eating disorder as well as depression with the sadness and moodiness usually an eating disorder and depression go hand in hand
yes get help well done for realizing something is wrong