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Daily Affective Dynamics in Major Depressive Disorder: The Role of Daily Stressors and Positive Events

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Abstract

This study examined daily affective dynamic indices among individuals with a major depressive disorder (MDD) diagnosis in the past one year at the time of the interview, focusing on affective variability and change in affect in response to daily events (affective reactivity). Data were from the main survey and daily diary project of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. Participants (N = 1,970; nMDD = 202; nnon-MDD = 1,768) completed structured clinical interviews on mental health and telephone interviews about their daily experiences spanning eight consecutive days. Multilevel models revealed that the MDD group experienced greater positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) variability than the non-MDD group. On days that at least one stressful event was reported, the MDD group experienced a greater decrease in PA and a greater increase in NA. On days that at least one positive event was reported, the MDD group experienced a greater increase in PA and a greater decrease in NA. Changes in affect to daily events, particularly the mood brightening effect, may be indicators of depression and potential targets for intervention. Limitations of the study include a community sample, reliance on self-reported measures of daily stressors and positive events, inclusion of remitted and current MDD participants, and the DSM-III-R based criteria for MDD diagnosis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA

    Dahlia Mukherjee

  2. Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Sun Ah Lee & David Almeida

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  1. Dahlia Mukherjee
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Correspondence to Dahlia Mukherjee.

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Funding

Support for this project is through The Pennsylvania State University Social Science Research Institute to DM. MIDUS has been funded by the John D. and Catherine T. Foundation Research Network and National Institute on Aging (P01-AG020166 & U19-AG051426) DA.

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Data Availability

The datasets generated during and analyzed during the current study are publicly available in the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) repository https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/NACDA/studies/26841/versions/V2 (Ryff & Almeida, 2017; Ryff et al., 2018, 2021).

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The study was approved by the IRB of the institution responsible for data collection and all respondents consented to their participation.

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Handling Editor: Michelle Shiota

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Mukherjee, D., Lee, S.A. & Almeida, D. Daily Affective Dynamics in Major Depressive Disorder: The Role of Daily Stressors and Positive Events. Affec Sci 4, 757–769 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-023-00209-x

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