A new study found that people with major depressive disorder report mind wandering more than twice as often as healthy adults. These people saw their mind wandering as more of a negative thing. Mind wandering was more frequent in depressed people who reported experiencing more negative mood and less positive mood. This research Affective Disorders Journal.
Mind wandering is the spontaneous shifting of attention from the current task or external environment to internal thoughts and fantasies. This typically occurs when people are engaged in routine or low-demand activities. While the mind wanders, people think about their past, future, or unrelated topics. Although mind wandering promotes creativity and problem solving, frequent or excessive mind wandering is associated with negative outcomes such as rumination and decreased emotional control.
In people with depression, the mind wanders and tends to focus on negative thoughts, regrets, and worries, contributing to persistent low mood and feelings of hopelessness. Research shows that people with depression often experience uncontrollable mind wandering, which can worsen their symptoms. This tendency to ruminate increases cognitive load, hindering concentration and productivity.
Study author Matthew S. Welhaf and his colleagues aimed to better understand the frequency of mind wandering in the daily lives of people with major depressive disorder compared to healthy people. . They also aimed to explore the content of mind wandering. Unlike many previous studies that relied on formal measures and ratings, this study applied an experience sampling design in which participants were asked to report their experiences several times a day.
The authors hypothesized that people with major depressive disorder would have their thoughts wander more often and focus on the past. Furthermore, they expected that the frequency of mind wandering would be associated with negative mood.
Study participants included 106 adults up to 40 years of age whose native English was English. Fifty-three were healthy controls with no history of mental illness, and the remaining 53 had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Participants with major depressive disorder were slightly older, with an average age of 28 years, compared with 25 years for healthy participants. Approximately 70% of participants in both groups were female.
The study authors provided participants with a handheld electronic device with Experience Sampling Program 4.0 installed. Over a period of 7–8 days, participants were randomly prompted to report on their current experience eight times a day (from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.), resulting in a maximum of 56 prompts over the period. On average, participants completed approximately 43 to 44 prompts, a similar number for both groups.
This prompt asked participants whether their mind was wandering when the prompt sounded (“When I heard the beep, my mind was wandering to something other than what I was doing”); They were asked to report their positive and negative emotions (“That’s how I feel”). “Right now I feel happy/excited/alert/active” and “Right now I feel sad/anxious/angry/frustrated/embarrassed/disgusted/guilty”), and complete a shortened assessment of rumination (rumination response (based on scale).
The results showed that participants with major depressive disorder reported mind wandering more than twice as often as healthy controls. These people reported mind wandering in 37% of the prompts, compared to only 17% of the healthy controls. Differences in the frequency of mind wandering among patients with major depressive disorder were much greater than among healthy controls.
However, there were no differences between the groups in the temporal focus of mind wandering, with healthy participants thinking about the past as often as depressed people during these experiences.
Mind wandering in people with major depressive disorder also showed a more frequent negative trend. These people reported that mind wandering had a negative valence (negative emotional tone) in 42% of cases, compared to only 10% of healthy participants. People with depression experience mind wandering more often when their negative mood is high and their positive mood is low, but this association between mood and mind wandering is not observed in healthy people. I couldn’t.
Current mind wandering predicted future positive mood levels in depressed patients, but not in healthy participants. In contrast, current mood, whether negative or positive, did not predict future mind wandering. This may indicate that mind wandering does not affect mood, especially positive mood, but rather the opposite.
“Individuals with MDD [major depressive disorder] They frequently report that their thoughts wander during their daily lives, and this appears to be tied to their emotions. “Mind wandering may have a maladaptive impact on MDD and may be a target for intervention,” the study authors concluded.
This study sheds light on the experience of mind wandering in depression. However, this study focused only on some aspects of mind wandering and task-irrelevant thinking. It did not matter how freely the participants’ thoughts were moving at the time. Therefore, it remains unclear whether these mind wanderings are unintentional. Additionally, all study participants were relatively young adults. Results for older groups may not be identical.
The paper isMind wandering in daily life of depressed patients: An experience sampling study,” authors are Matthew S. Welhaf, Jutta Mata, Susanne M. Jaggi, Martin Buschkuehl, John Jonides, Ian H. Gotlib, and Renee J. Thompson.
