Abstract
BackgroundMental imagery may influence the onset and maintenance of depression, but specific mechanisms have not yet been determined.MethodsNine hundred twelve participants completed questionnaires on positive and negative mental images, as well as images of injury and death that lead to positive emotions (“ID-images”), and depressive symptomatology. The assessment was carried out online to reduce effects of social desirability.ResultsPositive images were reported by 87 % of the sample, negative images by 77 %. ID-images were present in one-third of the sample. A connection with depression severity was found for the absence of positive mental images and the presence of negative images as well as ID-images. Higher depression scores were associated with more frequent and vivid negative images, greater imagery distress, and a higher proportion of negative relative to positive images.ConclusionsMental images are clearly related to depression. Future research should focus on ID-images and their connection to suicide-risk in depressed patients.
Highlights
Mental imagery may influence the onset and maintenance of depression, but specific mechanisms have not yet been determined
When considering cut-offs for symptom severity, 42.3 % of the sample did not display any relevant symptoms (0–8), 17.4 % scored within the category of minimal depression (9–13), 10.2 % scored within the category of mild depression (14–19), 11.2 % scored within the category of moderate depression (20–28), and 18.9 % were severely depressed (29–63) according to Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)-II cut-offs [34]
Positive mental images were generally experienced by 86.5 % (n = 789) of participants, while 77.3 % (n = 705) reported experiencing negative mental images, and 34.2 % (n = 312) reported experiencing ID-images
Summary
Mental imagery may influence the onset and maintenance of depression, but specific mechanisms have not yet been determined. Negative mental images may represent intrusive recollections of unpleasant autobiographical events or non-memory based scenes, or they may portray fears of possible future disasters; a phenomenon which has been termed (involuntary) mental time travel [9]. They can include intentionally produced images of future self-harm and suicidal ideation, so. Research indicates though that distressing imagery may influence the maintenance of psychopathology [17,18,19]. Mental images substantially impact emotions, exceeding the impact of verbal cognition [20], which
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