Positive Emotions May Still Be Low and Slow to Change in People Who Have Recovered from Depression

What is it about?

Previous studies have indicated that depression is not only related to how negative or positive people feel on average, but also to how their emotions change over time. However, these findings remain uncertain because few studies have examined these patterns in clinical samples. In this study, we compared people who had recovered from depression with people who had never been depressed. The recovered group was not currently depressed, but they had multiple previous depression episodes and were still at higher risk of becoming depressed again. Using their smartphones, participants reported how they felt 10 times per day for 6 days while going about their daily lives. We found that the two groups substantially differed in several aspects of emotional life, including the mean of their emotions, how much their emotions varied and how strongly emotions carried over from one moment to the next. However, when we considered these different emotional patterns together, one stood out: positive emotions changed more slowly in people who had recovered from depression. In other words, for formerly depressed individuals, positive emotions seemed to be more “inert” and substantially lower than in the healthy group. Their positive emotions were low and were slow to change. This pattern remained even after accounting for differences in current depressive symptoms.

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Photo by Adam Custer on Unsplash

Photo by Adam Custer on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Our findings suggest that people who have recovered from depression may still show differences in how their positive emotions work in daily life. In particular, their positive emotions may be more “inert,” meaning that they change more slowly from one moment to the next. This is called positive affect inertia. It could be important because treatment may reduce negative mood and depressive symptoms, while positive mood may remain lower and less flexible. Positive emotions have received less attention in depression research than negative emotions, even though loss of pleasure is one of the core symptoms of depression. Previous studies suggest that positive emotions may play an important role in recovery and future risk. For example, positive affect may protect people from the emotional impact of stress, and low positive affect predicts suicide attempts in adolescents post-hospitalization. Our study suggests that it may not be enough to look only at how much positive emotion people feel on average; it may also matter how easily positive emotions change over time. If future studies confirm these findings, positive affect inertia could be considered a possible risk factor for future depressive episodes. It may also be useful to examine whether treatments designed to increase positive emotions and reward sensitivity can also help positive emotions become more flexible in daily life.

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