How Bad Feelings Can Harm Your Health

Aug. 28 -- THURSDAY, Aug. 27 (HealthDay News) -- A depressed emotional state -- feelings of hopelessness and apathy -- could have a direct effect on your physical health, new research indicates.

A study of stroke survivors found a slower rate of recovery among those experiencing apathy, caring little about themselves and the world around them. And a study of healthy middle-aged women found an association between hopelessness and unexpected thickening of the carotid artery, the main blood vessel to the brain.

Both findings are reported in the Aug. 27 issue of Stroke.

The apathy study was triggered by a 2006 paper on Parkinson's disease in a different journal, said Nancy E. Mayo, a professor of medicine at McGill University in Montreal, and lead author of the apathy study. "It said that if patients were apathetic the best thing was just to leave them alone," she said. "I was incensed that the author said we just shouldn't care."

So Mayo launched a study in which 408 family caregivers of stroke survivors filled out apathy questionnaires every four months, asking whether the survivor "waits for someone to do things that he or she can do for self," or "just sits and watches" and the like.

It's an admittedly imperfect method of measurement, Mayo said, "but we used what we had." Reports indicated that a third of the stroke survivors had minor apathy through the first year, with 3 percent having high levels of apathy. Apathy worsened for 7 percent of the survivors, and eased for 7 percent during the year.

Measurements of physical function showed that "even very minor apathy had just as strong an impact on recovery as major apathy," Mayo said. Answers about the quality of life of the stroke survivors, such as their engagement in social activities, found lesser improvement among those whose apathy worsened.

It's not clear what can be done to help in such a situation, Mayo said, in large part because very little research has been done on apathy. "You can't fix what you can't measure," she said. "This is a first attempt to sort things out. Since no one is paying attention, it is not surprising there are no treatments for it."