Do thinking patterns predict depressive symptoms?

Abstract

This study evaluates whether depressive symptomatology is related to the persistence, during recent symptomatic remission, of either dysfunctional attitudes, as hypothesized by Beck's cognitive theory of depression, or attributional biases, as predicted by Seligman's reformulated learned helplessness theory. Biased attributions did not relate either to the course of the depressive disorder or to symptom severity 6 months later. However, consistent with Beck's cognitive theory, dysfunctional attitudes after recent clinical remission correlated with subsequent symptom severity. Persistent dysfunctional attitudes during recent clinical remission may predict subsequent vulnerability to depressive symptoms, or these attitudes may be a more sensitive indicator of persistent depressive psychopathology than the classical signs and symptoms of a depressive episode.