Keywords
MDD, depression, depressive symptoms
DISORDER
Distorted thoughts, characterized by cognitive biases related to a pessimistic view about the patients themselves, the others/world, and their future are consistently associated with depression [One of the most comprehensive models to interpret the distorted thoughts in depression was proposed by Aaron Beck, the author of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) [While there is evidence linking distorted thoughts and depression, studies investigating the effects of how these thoughts affect people have yieded mixed results. Some studies have suggested negative affect as a predictor of depression severity [In contrast, Lewinnsohn et al. [Although research suggests that thoughts are a significant feature of depression, much uncertainty still exists about their mechanism in patients with the disorder. Thus, this study investigated whether distorted thoughts mediate the depressive symptoms in patients with MDD, in order to gain a better understanding of the mechanism underlying this link. We hypothesize that distorted thoughts may have a moderate correlation with the severity and symptoms of depression, and we aim to investigate how this correlation is mediated.