Is it worth it? Greater risk aversion with lower life satisfaction among depressed individuals

Decisions of individuals with depression are often risk-averse. Risk-aversion may also extend to decisions regarding treatment, which may cause individuals to forgo or delay treatment. It is also well established that depression is associated with lower satisfaction with life. However, whether life...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology, health & medicine health & medicine, 2024-04, Vol.29 (4), p.732-742
Main Authors: Young, Bethany E., Goodmann, Danielle R., Hamlin, Erica, Tabaczyk, Olivia, Dunn, Laura B., Muñoz, Ricardo F., Leykin, Yan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affect
Chronic pain
Chronic Pain - epidemiology
Clinical interviews
Clinical research
Clinical trials
Comorbidity
decision-making
depression
Depressive Disorder
Elicitation
Health Status
Humans
Life satisfaction
Mental depression
Personal Satisfaction
Quality of Life
Risk
Risk aversion
Risk preferences
Satisfaction with life
Self report
Surveys and Questionnaires
treatment
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Summary:Decisions of individuals with depression are often risk-averse. Risk-aversion may also extend to decisions regarding treatment, which may cause individuals to forgo or delay treatment. It is also well established that depression is associated with lower satisfaction with life. However, whether life satisfaction is associated with risk aversion for individuals with depression is not yet known. Three groups of participants (Depressed: n = 61; Chronic pain: n = 61; Comorbid depression and pain: n = 58) completed a clinical interview and several self-report questionnaires, including the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Participants also completed two utility elicitation tasks: time trade-off (TTO), which measures utilities of health states without implied risks, and standard gamble (SG), which measures utilities of health states in the presence of risk (presented in this study as a hypothetical clinical trial described as having both potential harms and benefits). Risk aversion is defined as the difference in the utility ratings generated via SG and via TTO. For both TTO and SG, individuals evaluated their own depression or pain. When perfect health was used as a hypothetical benefit in TTO and SG tasks, satisfaction with life was not associated with risk preferences, for either depressed participants or participants with chronic pain (all ps ns). However, for participants with depression, when the hypothetical benefit was a more ecologically valid 'mild' depression in TTO and SG tasks, lower satisfaction with life was associated with greater risk aversion (p 
ISSN:1354-8506
1465-3966
DOI:10.1080/13548506.2023.2211805