Depression, Pain and Memory are Linked
Depression, not neuroticism, is found to be more responsible for exaggeration in remembering painful physical symptoms, according to a recent study from the University of Iowa.
During a study, women participants were asked to describe any of 15 usual physical symptoms they felt every day for three weeks. When asked to recall how often they had felt the physical symptoms over the past three weeks, the women overexaggerated the extent to which they had felt the pain and how often.
Usually, people would attribute this to neuroticism but it was found that depressed women proved to be more likely to overexaggerate than neurotic women. This might have been because depressed women usually remembered the worst part of the pain most.
Though depression can cause a lot of physical symptoms by itself, researchers made sure to exclude these type of symptoms from the study.
The findings suggest that these overexaggerated reports can affect what doctors do in response to depressed peoples’ complaints. Therefore, depressed women should write down physical symptoms as they happen in order to keep an accurate record.
It seems that depression can not only cause physical pain but can also affect memory of painful events.
Add A New CommentWe value and respect the experiences of all of our HerWriters, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.
Add A New CommentComments
There are no comments yet. Be the first to get the conversation started.