New research shows people who feel depressed tend to recall having more physical symptoms than they actually experienced. The study indicates that depression -- not neuroticism -- is the cause of such over-reporting.
Psychologist Jerry Suls, professor and collegiate fellow in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, attributes the findings to depressed individuals recalling experiences differently, tending to ruminate over and exaggerate the bad.
Published electronically this month in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, the study was conducted by investigators in the UI Department of Psychology, the Center for Research in the Implementation of Innovative Strategies in Practice (CRIISP) at the Iowa City VA Medical Center, and the UI College of Nursing.
The 109 study participants, all female, completed baseline surveys to assess their levels of neuroticism and depression. Each day for three weeks, they reported whether they felt 15 common physical symptoms including aches and pains, gastrointestinal and upper-respiratory issues. On the 22nd day, they were asked to remember how often they had experienced each physical symptom in the preceding three weeks. People who scored higher in depression were more likely to overstate the frequency of their past symptoms.
"People who felt depressed made the most errors when asked to remember their physical symptoms," Suls said. "They tended to exaggerate their experience."
Past research has indicated that people high in neuroticism, a general disposition that includes negative affects like irritability, sadness, anxiety and fear, are more likely to exaggerate their physical symptom experience. This new study indicates that depression -- which can be one component of neuroticism -- is more likely the reason.
"For 30 years, the hypothesis has been that neuroticism is behind inflated reports of symptoms. We're saying no -- depression appears to be the big player," Suls said. "We discovered that people high in neuroticism but low in depression are not likely to misremember symptoms."