Feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness, and depressed mood were the most closely co-occurring and consistent symptoms in patients with remitted major depressive disorder, according to a study of 132 patients.
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All participants had high psychosocial functioning, had fully remitted major depressive disorder (MDD) for more than 6 months, and had no relevant lifetime comorbid Axis I disorders. Of the 132 patients, 121 were medication free while they were participating in the research project. The researchers used a phenomenological psychopathology–based test translated from German to interview all 132 patients, with 94 having answered additional questions for the purpose of assessing “moral emotions.”
More than 90% of the study’s participants demonstrated that they had experienced feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness, and a depressed mood. “This core cluster closely co-occurred with another cluster of symptoms of high consistency around 90%: lack of drive (this item includes lack of energy), affective rigidity (i.e., an inability to respond emotionally, including anhedonia), blunted affect, and social withdrawal,” wrote Roland Zahn of King’s College London, and his colleagues.
Of the patients who answered questions aimed at assessing moral emotions, 45.8% said feelings of inadequacy were most bothersome, while 39.8% named self-blaming emotions, including guilt and self-disgust, as most bothersome. A slightly larger number of patients reported having felt self-disgust/contempt than the number of patients who reported having felt guilt.
“Future studies are needed to confirm these results in patients with current MDD and to investigate how distinctive self-blaming emotions are of MDD without comorbid and relevant Axis I disorders as studied here,” the researchers said.
Read the full study in Journal of Affective Disorders (doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.08.001).