Depressive symptoms can be contagious

There are people who respond negatively to stressful events in their lives. They interpret these events as a result of factors they cannot control along with their inability to cope with the situation.

This way of thinking is called cognitive vulnerability and depending on its severity it can be a powerful risk factor for predicting depression.

A study has revealed that a person's level of cognitive vulnerability can increase through coexistence with other people who own superior levels cognitive vulnerability.

In other words: this negative way of interpreting reality can spread between people who live together.

The study on depressive symptoms

The researchers hypothesized that this "contagion" would be much more pronounced at crucial moments in our lives..

For this reason they chose University students in your first year of study outside your home. The beginning of university life coincides for many people with their first opening to the world.

We meet people from other cities (or countries) with customs and habits different from ours. At that moment we realize that they exist other ways of interpreting and understanding reality, beyond the family and friendship circle in which we have grown up. At that time we are more likely to integrate parts of that new reality into ourselves..

For the study it is randomly chosen 103 pairs of roommates. The members of each couple did not know each other previously. Before starting the coexistence, all the students filled out questionnaires to measure your levels of cognitive vulnerability and other symptoms associated with depression.

Later they filled out similar questionnaires again after 3 and 6 months of coexistence.

The results

The results revealed that the level of cognitive vulnerability (tendency to depression) of the subjects increased after several months of living with a roommate with initial high levels.

That is, a fairly normal person shared a flat with another person with depressive symptoms and after several months I also began to feel those same symptoms.

Similarly, the high levels of some subjects decreased after living with people with lower levels. That is, depressive symptoms decreased after living with non-depressive people.. In short, it seems that both levels tend to equalize and find a kind of balance.