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Summary Depression also has a positive side-effect, says a research.
Sadness, apathy, preoccupation are all what comes to mind when we think about depression, but a new study has suggested that depression has a positive side-effect.Researchers have found that depressed individuals perform better than their non-depressed peers in sequential decision tasks.In the study, participants - who were healthy, clinically depressed, or recovering from depression -- played a computer game in which they could earn money by hiring an applicant in a simulated job search.In addition to resembling everyday decision problems, such as house shopping and dating, the task has a known optimal strategy. The result showed that depressed patients approximated this optimal strategy more closely than non-depressed participants did.While healthy participants searched through relatively few candidates before selecting an applicant, depressed participants searched more thoroughly and made choices that resulted in higher payoffs.
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