How depression affects our sense of time: Hours drag on and even stand still for those battling the condition, study reveals 

  • People with depression perceive time differently from healthy people
  • They are able to judge an interval of time - like 5 seconds - as accurately
  • However, they perceive that the same length of time passes more slowly
  • Backs up anecdotal reports from depressed patients who say they feel as though time is creeping forward or passing in slow motion

Time seems to pass extremely slowly or even stand still when a person suffers from depression, a study has found.

Psychologists say people with depression experience time differently from those without the mental illness.

They are able to accurately judge a duration of time, such as two minutes, but they have a subjective feeling that the time is passing more slowly, the researchers found.

Time seems to pass extremely slowly or even stand still when a person suffers from depression. People battling the condition perceive time differently than healthy people, a study found

Time seems to pass extremely slowly or even stand still when a person suffers from depression. People battling the condition perceive time differently than healthy people, a study found

They explained that how a person perceives time is highly subjective and usually depends on the situation.

For example, time might drag on if a person is waiting for something, or seem to speed up if an important deadline is fast approaching.

In this analysis, they found that depressed people will perceive that any given length of time passes more slowly than for someone without depression.

Dr Daniel Oberfeld-Twistel, of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, said: 'Psychiatrists and psychologists in hospitals and private practices repeatedly report that depressed patients feel that time only creeps forward slowly or is passing in slow motion.

'The results of our analysis confirm that this is indeed the case.'

Dr Oberfeld-Twistel and his team collated and analysed relevant studies on the subject in a 'meta-study', a statistical technique for combining the results of independent studies.

They looked at the results from 16 individual studies in which 433 depressed people and 485 non-depressed people participated.

In the studies, the participants were asked to estimate the duration of periods of time.

For example, they were asked to estimate the length of a film in minutes, press a button for five seconds, or discriminate the duration of two sounds.

The results obtained for the depressed subjects were exactly the same as those for the healthy ones without any relevant statistical difference.

People with depression were as equally able to judge a specific length of time as healthy people, but they perceived that the time passed more slowly, psychologists discovered

People with depression were as equally able to judge a specific length of time as healthy people, but they perceived that the time passed more slowly, psychologists discovered

'We found strong indicators that in depressed individuals the subjective feeling of the passage of time differs from the ability to assess the actual duration of external events,' concluded Dr Oberfeld-Twistel.

He added his team identified several aspects of the relation between depression and time perception that have not yet been investigated adequately.

Little is actually known about the effects of antidepressants and psychotherapy, or how patients with bipolar disorders compared to non-bipolar depression assess the passing of time.

Future studies need to clearly differentiate between the subjective perception of the passage of time, and a person's ability to estimate the precisely defined lengths of time, he added.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 350 million people of all ages suffer from depression worldwide.

It is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and is a major contributor to the global burden of disease, it said.

At its worst, depression can lead to suicide. Suicide results in an estimated 1 million deaths every year, the WHO warns.

 

 

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