Is flexibility always associated with mental health? A study of coping and depression

Abstract

Aim of the studyThe present study aimed to determine if there is indeed a relationship between coping flexibility, defined as an ability to use a greater variety of coping strategies, and depression scores in patients suffering from major depressionSubject or material and methodsThe participants of this study were clinical patients undergoing cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). The sample was taken from the cognitive-behavioural therapy arm of Jacobson’s landmark study (1996, 2008). Depression was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Rush, Shaw & Emery, 1979), coping strategies were identified using the Coping Patterns Rating Scale (CPRS; Perry, Drapeau, & Dunkley, 2005), and coping flexibility was calculated using Gini’s C concentration measure.ResultsNo significant association was found between flexibility in coping and severity of depression.DiscussionNo correlation was found between BDI scores and flexibility scores, suggesting that coping flexibility is not related to depression severity. However, while flexibility in coping, or lack thereof, is not associated with depression severity, it remains to be seen if decreased flexibility in coping is different in individuals suffering from depression when compared to non-depressed individuals.ConclusionsThe absence of a significant association between coping flexibility and depression severity does to some extent call into question theories about flexibility in mental health, or at the very least, it circumscribes them. While mental illness may be related to increased cognitive and behavioral rigidity, it appears that the severity of the illness is unrelated to rigidity.

It takes two to tango: Dorsal direct and indirect pathways orchestration of motor learning and behavioral flexibility

“…Behavioral inflexibility that includes impairments in reversal learning, is a common feature of many psychiatric illnesses and neurodegenerative disorders such as schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD), drug addiction, depression, Parkinson's or Huntington's diseases (Owen et al, 1992;Lawrence et al, 1999;Swainson et al, 2000;Cools, 2001;Rogers and Robbins, 2001;McLean et al, 2004;Fillmore and Rush, 2006;Waltz and Gold, 2007;Murray et al, 2008;Clark et al, 2009;Shell et al, 2018). Along with brain impairments associated with these diseases, a large literature has shown that across species, the frontal lobe and the basal ganglia (BG) play fundamental roles in enabling the different aspects of behavioral flexibility (Kirkby, 1969;Kolb, 1977;Pisa and Cyr, 1990;Owen et al, 1992;Eslinger and Grattan, 1993;Roberts et al, 1994;Wise et al, 1996;Dias et al, 1996Dias et al, , 1997Birrell and Brown, 2000;Swainson et al, 2000;Collins et al, 2000;Monchi et al, 2001;Cools, 2001;Crofts et al, 2001; Barense et al, 2002;Chudasama and Robbins, 2003;McLean et al, 2004;Ragozzino, 2007;Waltz and Gold, 2007;Floresco et al, 2008).…”

Physical Fitness and Dietary Intake Improve Mental Health in Chinese Adolescence Aged 12–13

“…In addition, there are few studies on the relationship between flexibility and mental health. Some studies believe that the improvement of flexibility can help patients with developmental delays to improve their psychological state ( Shell et al, 2018 ). Our results show that flexibility cannot predict the mental health of adolescents aged 12–13, and the relationship between flexibility and mental health of different ages and specific populations is not well defined.…”

Coping flexibility: Variability, fit and associations with efficacy, emotion regulation, decentering and responses to stress

“…Rigidity has also been considered as the antithesis to variability. To study variability or rigidity, measures of ways of coping with stressful events (e.g., problem-solving, support seeking, positive thinking) have been gathered and responses have been configured to reflect breadth in the use of coping strategies in general or across different stressful situations (a larger coping repertoire; Bonanno et al, 2020;Fresco et al, 2006;Keng et al, 2018;Lam & McBride-Chang, 2007;Lester et al, 1994;Shell et al, 2018;Zimmer-Gembeck et al, 2013. Related approaches have been referred to as the breadth of a coping repertoire, a balanced profile of coping (Cheng et al, 2014) or as directed coping (Wright, 2020).…”