Three potential emotional causes of depressive symptoms – negative
emotionality, hyper-emotionality and hypo-emotionality: a preliminary
study
Abstract
The broad diagnostic category of DSM Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is
heterogeneous, and we suggest that it can be subdivided into at least
three groups: those with Negative-emotionality who experience strong
negative emotionality such as misery, anxiety, guilt, fatigue etc;
Hyper-emotionality who experience strong emotions in both negative and
positive directions; and Hypo-emotionality who experience weak or
blunted emotions. This model was tested using an internet survey of 251
subjects that measured strength of depressive symptoms; and strength and
directionality of emotions. All three emotionality groups were
significantly more depressed than controls. This indicates that
depressive symptoms may be a consequence of at least three different
emotional patterns. One implication may be that different emotionality
sub-types could benefit from different treatments.