Depression - It's Contagious?

Links: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130418154413.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/depression-contagious-cognitive-vulnerability_n_3111940.html 
http://www.webmd.com/depression/news/20000727/husband-wife-depressed-you-may-not-feel-so-good-either

Recently, researches at the University of Notre Dam did a study which found that depression could be "contagious". It has been suggested that people who react badly in stressful situations are more vulnerable to depression. This is called cognitive vulnerability. In order to test their theory they used data collected from 103 pairs of college roommates. These students were all new college freshmen. They completed a questionnaire which measured their cognitive vulnerability and depression levels and needed to report all stressful moments. They completed questionnaires at the beginning of college, the 3 month mark, and the 6 month mark.



 

They found that if one roommate had a high cognitive vulnerability then the other roommate would usually have their own cognitive vulnerability rise as well. Those that showed an increase at the 3 month mark usually had twice the depression symptoms than other students with no increase. By surrounding a person with depression with different people that have low cognitive vulnerability and less stress, their own levels of cognitive vulnerability will lower. In other words, happy unstressed people can help people with depression just by associating with them. A study in 2000 showed that one spouse could be affected if the other spouse suffered from depression which helps support this study. Overall, being around somebody that is depressed doesn't make another person depressed. It all depends on their cognitive vulnerability.   

NOS Themes
Science is collaborative:
Researchers worked together and the study benefited from the varied opinions.

Science is subject to debate and tentative:
A couple years ago everyone said that it was the responsibility of caring for somebody that is depressed that can cause the caregiver to become depressed. This study shows that this might not be true.

Role of Motivation and Curiosity:
The researchers had to be motivated to do this study.

Role of Skepticism:
This study was just released so many people are not sure if this study is accurate since there are a lot of different variables. They are skeptical and want to continue to test this theory.