Feeling Defeated Linked to High Risk of Depression and Anxiety

A latest study claims that feeling trapped and defeated has a negative impact on the person's mental health.

The study presented at an annual conference of the British Psychological Society's Division of Clinical Psychology in York claims that people who feel trapped and defeated are more susceptible to suffer from depression and anxiety when compared to others.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, depression affects many Americans at various levels and an estimated 1 in 10 American adults suffer from depression.

This study that involved people from the economically deprived areas, was led by researchers at the Universities of Manchester and Leicester.  The participants were asked to complete questionnaires indicating their measures of entrapment, defeat, depression and anxiety. The participants were asked to fill in the same questionnaire for the second time, but with a gap of 12 months between each tests.

At the start of the study, nearly half of the participants were experiencing relevant levels negative feelings. On evaluating the results, the researchers noticed that the people, who felt entrapped and defeated at the beginning of the study, had a higher chance of showing signs of mental illness after a year.

"Our results suggest that screening for defeat and entrapment may help with early identification of people who may be at risk of developing mental health problems," said lead author Alys Griffiths.

"Our findings not only highlight the fact that depressive disorders are a global health priority, but also that it is important to understand variations in burden by disorder, country, region, age, sex and year when setting global health objectives," study researcher was quoted in New Vision.

Such kind of mental illness further triggers several problems. Studies in the past have shown how depression further increases the risk of Parkinson's disease.