It would seem that Sigmund Freud’s theories on depression have been proved right; guilt does play a role in depression, according to MRI scans depressed people respond more strongly to guilt. Dr Sigmund Freud said that depression was characterised by feelings of guilt or self-blame, which made it different from ‘normal’ sadness.
Researchers at the University of Manchester have done brain scans on people with a history of depression and found that the brain scans differed in the regions associated with guilt and knowledge of socially acceptable behaviour from individuals who never get depressed.
The study was published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
Lead researcher Dr Roland Zahn, of the University’s School of Psychological Sciences, said: ‘Our research provides the first brain mechanism that could explain the classical observation by Freud that depression is distinguished from normal sadness by proneness to exaggerated feelings of guilt or self-blame.
‘For the first time, we chart the regions of the brain that interact to link detailed knowledge about socially appropriate behaviour – the anterior temporal lobe – with feelings of guilt – the subgenual region of the brain – in people who are prone to depression.’
Dr Zahn, a MRC clinician scientist fellow, said: ‘The scans revealed that the people with a history of depression did not ‘couple’ the brain regions associated with guilt and knowledge of appropriate behaviour together as strongly as the never depressed control group do.
‘Interestingly, this ‘decoupling’ only occurs when people prone to depression feel guilty or blame themselves, but not when they feel angry or blame others. This could reflect a lack of access to details about what exactly was inappropriate about their behaviour when feeling guilty, thereby extending guilt to things they are not responsible for and feeling guilty for everything.’
The research team is now investigating whether the results from the study can be used to predict depression risk after remission of a previous episode.