Crying Threshold and Intensity in Major Depressive Disorder
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2002
Keywords
crying response, thresholds, intensity, emotional activation, depressed adults
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.111.2.302
Abstract
Clinical lore suggests that depression is associated with frequent and intense crying. To test these postulations empirically, a standardized cry-evoking stimulus was presented to depressed and nondepressed participants, and their likelihood of crying and the magnitude of crying-related changes in their emotion experience, behavior, and autonomic physiology were compared. Unexpectedly, crying was no more likely in depressed than in nondepressed participants. Within the nondepressed group, participants who cried exhibited increases in the report and display of sadness and had greater cardiac and electrodermal activation than did participants who did not cry. There was less evidence of this crying-related emotional activation within the depressed group. The lack of emotional activation among clinically depressed participants who cried provides a tantalizing clue concerning how emotions are dysregulated in this disorder.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, v. 111, issue 2, p. 302-312
Scholar Commons Citation
Rottenberg, Jonathan; Gross, James J.; Wilhelm, Frank H.; Najmi, Sadia; and Gotlib, Ian H., "Crying Threshold and Intensity in Major Depressive Disorder" (2002). Psychology Faculty Publications. 1790.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/1790
