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The Effects of Major Depressive Disorder on Cognition

Maribel Mateo

California State University, Channel Islands

HLTH 499.01

Dr. Ashley Winans

24 July 2022
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The Effects of Major Depressive Disorder on Cognition

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is found to be the most common psychiatric disorder

worldwide (Weijers et al., 2022). Like many other health problems, MDD is an ample burden for

not only the patients but their families as well (Weijers et al., 2022). MDD causes a variety of

symptoms such as low energy, feelings of sadness, and thoughts of suicide. Symptoms often

cause patients with MDD to feel a lack of motivation, social engagement, and cognitive

problems such as poor concentration. The problem is that poor mental health negatively affects

one’s overall well-being which can lead to more health issues (Rissanen et al., 2013). These

research findings are important because they show that depression negatively affects social

interaction, engagement, cognition, and many other health aspects that go beyond mental health.

Research has shown that early improvements in depressive symptoms have indicated fewer

cognitive disturbances (Sumiyoshi et al., 2022). This is important to know because just like any

other illness, MDD is handled best when addressed early on. MDD can affect any person of any

age, ethnicity, gender, etc. This literature review will discuss how MDD affects a patient’s

cognitive skills, as well as some of its causes and treatments.

Disease Identification

In one study, adult outpatients with MDD were provided questionnaires to examine the

severity of their symptoms. Researchers investigated aspects of recovery such as depressive

symptom severity, acceptance, disease identification, and social participation (Weijers et al.,

2022). They kept track of changes in these concepts over time to see which concepts associate

with well-being and whether a relationship between depressive symptoms and well-being can be

achieved through acceptance, disease identification, and social participation (Weijers et al.,

2022). These were seen as key aspects of recovery as the patients must be open to receiving help
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to better themselves and their health. Researchers found that recovery in patients with MDD was

associated with improvements in multiple outcome domains (Weijers et al., 2022). Symptom

severity and acceptance from the patients with MDD showed the strongest association with

perceived well-being (Weijers et al., 2022). The first step in battling any disease is acceptance.

Then, the patient can take action and explore different treatment options. It was shown that

identifying and accepting the disease made it easier for patients to educate themselves and

discover treatment plans that worked best for them.

Early Improvement

It has been found that patients with MDD often maintain cognitive disturbances after

recovering from mood symptoms (Sumiyoshi et al., 2022). In this next study, researchers

investigated the relationship between early responses to mood symptoms and cognitive

disturbances after 6 months of antidepressant treatment (Sumiyoshi et al., 2022). Results showed

that early improvements in depressive symptoms predicted fewer cognitive disturbances. In other

words, early responses to depressive moods were related to fewer enduring subjective cognitive

symptoms (Sumiyoshi et al., 2022). Researchers detected that patients with MDD often

experience cognitive difficulties both subjectively and objectively (Sumiyoshi et al., 2022). This

makes it difficult for patients with MDD to engage with others and to be fully aware of their

surroundings. Therefore, recovery from cognitive disturbances is an important treatment goal

found in this study as it helps to improve social relationships, productivity, and overall quality of

life (Sumiyoshi et al., 2022).

Interpersonal Functioning

In this next study, researchers rated cognitive errors and coping strategies in

psychotherapy sessions of 42 participants with MDD using observer-rated measures (Drapeau et

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al., 2019). This study showed that a change in cognitive errors reconciled the relationship

between a change in participants’ interpersonal affiliation and a change in their depression scores

(Drapeau et al., 2019). In other words, researchers noticed that the shift in which the way

participants talked about and thought about themselves positively influenced their depressive

symptoms. They noticed that the more self-love and self-compassion patients practiced, the

fewer depressive symptoms they experienced. This study emphasizes the importance of

addressing cognitive errors to encourage interpersonal change, symptom reduction in MDD, and

increased well-being (Drapeau et al., 2019). Many experts say that one must rewire their brain

and mindset in order to fix cognitive errors. One of the best ways to do so is by practicing

mindfulness and implementing positive self-affirmations. By emphasizing the benefits of

improving self-directed affiliation levels during the treatment of depression, this study

encourages clinicians to expand on the behavioral component of cognitive therapy and integrate

techniques from other therapies that are designed to specifically target interpersonal issues

(Drapeau et al., 2019). These studies encourage the importance of maintaining good

interpersonal skills and the beneficial impact they can have on a person’s quality of life.

Critiques

These research studies included a variety of population sizes and age groups. The patients

and participants included in these studies also varied in sex and background. Most of these

research studies examined data from patients who were admitted to psychiatric departments for

either adults or children and adolescents with a diagnosis of depressive disorder (Fellinger et al.,

2022). These large sample sizes and their long observational periods served as an advantage in

providing robust responses to research questions. This emphasizes the idea that everyone

experiences issues with mental health no matter where you come from or who you are. However,
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a drawback of the deconstructing recovery study was actually disease identification. While the

author still stands firm in that disease identification is one of the key aspects of recovery,

researchers noticed that patients started to identify themselves with and as their disease.

Therapists and experts try to refrain their patients from identifying as their illness or disorder as

this is not a healthy coping mechanism. Furthermore, these studies implemented questionnaires

to gather the severity of their participants’ depressive symptoms. Questionnaires and surveys

often include biases that interfere with the authenticity of research findings, especially when it

comes to collecting data about human emotions and experiences.

Conclusion

In conclusion, people share similar life experiences that shape who they are as a person.

MDD is one of the leading causes of years lived with disability and continues to cause a

significant disease burden globally (Fellinger et al., 2022). Its symptoms negatively affect

patients with MDD and can often cause cognitive problems such as poor concentration. The

problem is that poor mental health negatively affects one’s well-being which can lead to more

health issues beyond solely mental health, such as eating disorders (Ottino et al., 2022). These

research findings are important because they demonstrate that depression negatively affects

social interaction, engagement, cognition, and the quality of life. Anyone and everyone should

use this information to improve their mindsets or to educate themselves so they can help

someone else who may be struggling with their mental health. It is important to talk about mental

health issues, such as MDD, as anyone can experience difficulties in this area throughout their

lifespan.
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References

Drapeau, M., D’Iuso, D. A., Dunkley, D., Dobson, K. S., Azzi, M., & Beaulieu, L. (2019).

Cognitions matter: The role of cognitive mediators in improving interpersonal

functioning and symptoms of depression. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 29(3),

261–276. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csuci.edu/10.1037/int0000139

Fellinger, M., Waldhör, T., Serretti, A., Hinterbuchinger, B., Pruckner, N., König, D., Gmeiner,

A., Vyssoki, S., Vyssoki, B., & Fugger, G. (2022). Seasonality in major depressive

disorder: Effect of sex and age. Journal of Affective Disorders, 296, 111–116. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.csuci.edu/10.1016/j.jad.2021.09.051

Ottino, C., Strippoli, M.-P. F., Gholam, M., Lasserre, A. M., Vandeleur, C. L., Vollenweider, P.,

Marques-Vidal, P., Clair, C., & Preisig, M. (2022). Short-term and long-term effects of

major depressive disorder subtypes on obesity markers and impact of sex on these

associations. Journal of Affective Disorders, 297, 570–578. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.csuci.edu/10.1016/j.jad.2021.10.057

Rissanen, T., Viinamäki, H., Lehto, S. M., Hintikka, J., Honkalampi, K., Saharinen, T., &

Koivumaa-Honkanen, H. (2013). The role of mental health, personality disorders and

childhood adversities in relation to life satisfaction in a sample of general population.

Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 67(2), 109–115.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.csuci.edu/10.3109/08039488.2012.687766

Sumiyoshi, T., Hoshino, T., Mishiro, I., Hammer-Helmich, L., Ge, H., Moriguchi, Y., Fujikawa,

K., & Fernandez, J. L. (2022). Prediction of residual cognitive disturbances by early

response of depressive symptoms to antidepressant treatments in patients with major

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depressive disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 296, 95–102. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.csuci.edu/10.1016/j.jad.2021.09.025

Weijers, A., Rasing, S., Creemers, D., Vermulst, A., Schellekens, A. F. A., & Westerhof, G. J.

(2022). Deconstructing recovery: A prospective study on well-being, symptom severity

and acceptance in patients with major depressive disorders. Journal of Affective

Disorders, 296, 653–659. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csuci.edu/10.1016/j.jad.2021.09.048