The occurrence of a stressful event is considered to increase the risk of developing depression. In the present study we explore whether the breakup of a romantic relationship can be used as an experimental model to study a depression-like state during a period of stress in individuals without a psychiatric disorder. The primary aim of our study was to investigate: 1) whether individuals with a recent romantic relationship breakup (‘‘heartbreak”) demonstrate symptoms of depression, 2) how to describe heartbreak characteristics based on data from a comprehensive questionnaire battery, and 3) whether this description can capture severity of depression symptoms. Secondary, we were interested in gender differences with regard to the above study objectives. Subjects who have experienced a relationship breakup in the preceding six months (N = 71) or are in a romantic relationship (N = 46) participated in our study. A questionnaire battery was administered to acquire information related to depression, mood, the breakup and (former) relationship. Principal Component Analysis with Procrustes bootstrapping was performed to extract components from the questionnaire data. Even though our sample of individuals who recently have experienced a relationship breakup can be on average considered non-depressed, group-level depression scores were elevated compared to individuals in a relationship (p = .001) and 26.8% reported symptoms corresponding to mild, moderate or severe depression. We described heartbreak by two principal components interpreted as ‘‘sudden loss” and ‘‘lack of positive affect”, respectively. Highly significant correlations between the component scores and depression scores were found (p < .001 and p < .001, respectively), although these correlations differed between the genders. Based on these findings, we propose that the experience of a romantic relationship breakup is a viable experimental model to examine symptoms of depression in individuals without a psychiatric disorder. This way, stress-related coping and depression vulnerability can be studied in further research.
Citation: Verhallen Are, Renken RJ, ) Connection separation: A fresh model to examine ramifications of strain on despair (-like) episodes. PLoS That fourteen(5): e0217320.
Copyright: © 2019 Verhallen ainsi que al. It is an unbarred accessibility article delivered within the regards to the latest Imaginative Commons Attribution Permit, and therefore permits unrestricted explore, shipping, and reproduction in virtually any medium, provided the original blogger and supply are paid.
Connection separation: An experimental model to examine ramifications of stress on anxiety (-like) episodes
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Funding: The study was funded by the a donation out-of Mr Hazewinkel to help you the research School away from Behavioural and Intellectual Neurosciences and you can Prof Grams.J. ter Horst. Mr Hazewinkel didn’t come with role from inside the research framework, study range and you can research, decision to publish, or preparation of manuscript.
Introduction
Stressed life-incidents are believed to get risk factors to your development of anxiety. Kendler et al. investigated the new interplay ranging from exhausting situations, genetic predisposition and you will depression among girls twins and found you to one another genetics and you will occurrence regarding stressful situations lead to the onset of depressive symptoms by themselves. Particularly situations with a high impact, eg death of a close partner and separation, raised the probability of developing a good depressive occurrence, while the almost all people do not build a depressive episode adopting the experience of an upsetting knowledge. And this, research concentrating on stressful and you can emotionally upsetting occurrences offers rewarding facts into the private differences away from worry-relevant coping therefore the link between worry and anxiety.