Study: Depression and anxiety sufferers report ailments differently

By Staff Writer

A new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reveals that depression and anxiety can influence the manner in which individuals report physical ailments such as headaches and nausea.

Researchers from the University of Iowa and the National Cancer Institute concluded that people who suffer from depression are more likely to report past physical ailments, while patients who have anxiety disorders are apt to claim they are experiencing problems in the present moment.

The team administered two parts of the study. The first was a survey of 144 undergraduate students that measured their level of depression and physical symptoms in the previous three weeks. The second was a 15-minute writing exercise among 125 scholars who were asked to write about a specific mood, such as anxiety, depression, happiness or neutral emotions. After the writing, they completed a checklist to indicate any ailments they were currently experiencing.

Participants who were depressed were more likely to record past problems that they really did experience, while anxious students were more likely to express fear about physical ailments in the present moment. The study's authors concluded that depression, a condition associated with sadness, can trigger an exaggerated recall of past events. Anxiety, on the other hand, prompted people to make a vigilant search for negative problems that currently existed.