Is It A Bad Day or Depression?

     As we continue through our daily experiences, we tend to forget that there are others around us who are experiencing or having feelings different from our own. Occasionally, everyone has down moments but they tend to last a short period of time. Whenever the length of negative feeling increase that don’t seem to go away, a person is defined as having depression. They might not have the same insight into life as you or might not find any activity enjoyable. It can’t be known by looking at someone whether they have depression or not but talking to them and listening to their feelings can provide many clues. Depression is all around in so many forms. There’s seasonal depression, postpartum depression, and psychotic depression. Approximately 350 million in the world suffer from depression showing how common it is (Depression).

           On May 3, I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Rebecca Stilton, an assistant professor and researcher at Loyola University Chicago, speak about her research regarding depression and its relationship with positive affect. In low positive affect is associated with reduced prefrontal cortical activity in remitted depression, Dr. Stilton emphasized depression as having symptoms of anhedonia. She defined anhedonia as the “reduction in ability to experience pleasure in daily life experiences” (article)and is related to high levels of negative affect (NA) and low levels of positive affect (PA). The main factor is the low levels of positive affect because it is specific to depression whereas negative affect can be used to discuss depression and anxiety. In order for an individual to be diagnosed with depression, many criteria must be met. For example, an individual with depression must have 5 out of the 9 possible symptoms to be diagnosed with depression. The participants in her experiment either had no history of depression or had remitted depression. Her experiment measured alpha wavelength activity in the left prefrontal cortex using EEG as an indication of future depressive episodes. She discovered high levels of alpha wavelengths when there was a low positive affect; it has been shown that high levels of alpha can be a cause of a future depression (Silton).

Dr. Stilton’s research has provided a new pathway for 

future researchers to discover new treatments for depression. There are situations everyday where individuals are experiencing low levels of positive affect but we tend to brush them off as if they’re no big deal and as temporary feelings. The discovery of being able to predict if a depression is going to occur can help individuals by receiving early interventions.

            In relation to Dr. Stilton’s study on depression and positive affect, I discovered a study, Emotional Stress-reactivity and Positive Affect among College Students: The Role of Depression History discussing the relationship between history of depression and positive affect. The researchers looked at variables such as positive affect, negative affect, and stress in college students.  The study discovered college students with history of depression benefit greatly from positive affect than college students with no history (O’Hara). This is an important study because the studied population is young; Dr. Stilton mentioned during her talk that the onset of depression usually occurs around 7^th grade. Stress was a component that Dr. Stilton’s study didn’t discuss but it is a common factor that can cause depression. Both of the studies showed the importance of positive affect when considering depression; individuals with depression experience low positive affects. The discoveries of the studies can help discover preventive and treatment methods for many types of depression whether the target be increasing positive affect or a method to decrease the levels of alpha wavelengths. Studies between depression and positive affect have opened up new opportunities for future generations to discover a preventive treatment and hopefully decrease the statistics on having depression.

Works Cited

"10 Warning Signs of Depression You Shouldn't Ignore | Top 10 Home Remedies." Top 10 Home Remedies. N.p., 11 Feb. 2016. Web. 04 May 2016. <http://www.top10homeremedies.com/news-facts/10-warning-signs-of-depression-you-shouldnt-ignore.html>.

"Depression." World Health Organization. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2016. <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs369/en/>.

O’Hara, Ross E., Stephen Armeli, Marcella H. Boynton, and Howard Tennen. "Emotional Stress-reactivity and Positive Affect among College Students: The Role of Depression History." Emotion (Washington, D.C.). U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 04 May 2016. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4028961/>.

Silton,R.l, Polnaszek, K.l, Dickson, D.A, Miller, G.A, and Heller, W. “low positive affect is associated with reduced prefrontal cortical activity in remitted depression.” 04 May 2016.