• Question: Can cognition and mental state affect recovery time? For example would someone depressed and thinking the worst of the situation take longer to recover from a disease compared someone more enthusiastic and optimistic

    Asked by anon-282368 to Lisa, Abi on 16 Mar 2021.
    • Photo: Lisa Grünwald

      Lisa Grünwald answered on 16 Mar 2021:

      Hi JoeL – Im sorry but this is not my area of expertise, maybe some of the other psychologists can help! I am aware of a few studies looking to see whether stress can affect recovery and I think there is some evidence to suggest that people in stressful careers do take longer to recover. It’s a really interesting question and I wouldn’t be surprised if it did take longer – but I’m sadly not familiar enough with the literature to say if it definitely does!

Comments

  • laraquartel commented on :

    Hi JoeL,

    I thought I would jump in here and give my ideas! Short answer to your question, most definitely! It can work two ways essentially – positive and negative effects.
    Firstly, low mood and depressive mind state can increase risk of some diseases (like heart disease or diabetes, even cancer in some cases). So we can see it increases risk of development even before we factor in its effect on recovery of these and other illnesses.
    In contrast, having more positive affect and mental states decreases a number of things, most notably I think is the fact it makes your risk of dying early a lot less than those with a generally depressed outlook. And for both of these recovery times are increased and decreased accordingly!
    I think we can also apply this same idea of affect and recovery in the context of mental illness. Some research has found that those with more optimist outlook actually have different brain functioning in the ‘reward pathway’ which may explain why they are more likely to ‘bounce back’ from depression and other mental health issues.