Background and objectives

The situation-symptom congruence hypothesis (SSCH; (Keller & Nesse, 2006), grounded in evolutionary theory, argues that different types of adversity should lead to distinct patterns of depressive symptoms that help individuals deal with adaptive challenges. Situation-symptom congruence hypotheses were tested in this study using experience sampling methodology.

Methods

Two hundred and sixty-five individuals, including 54% who scored at least 16 on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Revised Depression Scale, responded to text prompts daily for up to 9 days, reporting depressive symptoms as well as the most stressful event or issue they had experienced or focused on within the past 24 h.

Results

Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that the relationships between stressors and depressive symptom patterns were largely consistent with SSCH predictions. All stressors were significantly associated with symptoms hypothesized to be adaptive in response to those stressors. Moreover, in separate analyses, nine of the ten symptoms examined were either predicted by the stressors hypothesized to lead to that symptom or negatively related to stressors hypothesized to not elicit those symptoms.

Limitations

It is unclear whether the results generalize to those diagnosed with a major depressive disorder; the study did not assess actual life events.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that depressive symptoms may, in part, be adaptations that have evolved through natural selection to help individuals cope with adverse situations.

中文翻译：

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抑郁情绪的进化研究：日常压力源与抑郁症状模式之​​间的关系

背景和目标

情境-症状一致性假说 (SSCH; (Keller & Nesse, 2006) 以进化论为基础，认为不同类型的逆境应该导致不同的抑郁症状模式，帮助个人应对适应性挑战。情境-症状一致性假设是在本研究中使用经验抽样方法进行了测试。

方法

265 人，包括 54% 在流行病学研究中心修订的抑郁量表上得分至少为 16 的人，在长达 9 天的时间内每天对文本提示作出回应，报告抑郁症状以及他们最紧张的事件或问题在过去 24 小时内经历或专注于。

结果

多层次建模分析表明，压力源和抑郁症状模式之​​间的关系与 SSCH 的预测基本一致。所有压力源都与假设对这些压力源有适应性的症状显着相关。此外，在单独的分析中，所检查的十种症状中有九种是由假设导致该症状的压力源预测的，或者与假设不会引发这些症状的压力源负相关。

限制

尚不清楚结果是否适用于被诊断患有重度抑郁症的人；该研究没有评估实际生活事件。

结论

研究结果表明，抑郁症状可能部分是通过自然选择进化而来的适应，以帮助个人应对不利情况。