Investigation of Rumination and Cognitive Flexibility Levels in Patients with Depression

Abstract

Background: Depression is characterized by continuous depressed mood, anhedonia, loss of interest, and cognitive, behavioral, and physical symptoms. Many psychological factors such as individuals' cognitive processes, high neuroticism, low self-esteem have been reported to play important roles in the etiology, exacerbation, persistence, and treatment of depressive mood. The aim of this study is to compare the levels of rumination and cognitive flexibility in a healthy adult group without any mental disorders and adult patients followed up with depression. Materials and Method: In this cross-sectional case-control study, patients with depression (n=76, 34.1±9.32) and healthy controls (HG) (n=74, 34.5±10.5) were compared. The Sociodemographic Information Form, Beck Depression Inventory, Ruminative Thinking Scale, and the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory were performed to all participiants. Results: The study showed that depressive patients had higher ruminative thought levels and lower cognitive flexibility levels than healthy individuals. In addition, it was found that cognitive flexibility and ruminative thought severity can explain 35% of the variability of depressive symptom severity in the patient group. In the healthy group, ruminative thought severity can explain 9 % of the variability of depressive symptom severity. Conclusions: The results of the study showed that ruminative thought and cognitive flexibility are important factors when predicting and preventing depression during the premorbid period and are useful when making formulation and determining treatment goals during the treatment. Therefore, interventions to improve cognitive flexibility and rumination are important. The clinicians should add interventions to cognitive flexibility and rumination into their treatment approach.