Organization: University of Debrecen
Categorization: Social sciences and Humanities
Research group leader: Dr. habil Anita Szemán-Nagy
Introduction
Depression is the most challenging mental illness nowadays. Untreated depression is the major predictor of the suicidal behavior. Suicide rate in Hungary is among the highest in European Union (the 4th highest rate in EU). Our research group, the Mental Health Research Group of the University of Debrecen, conducts research in the field of depression and suicidal ideation.
One part of our research project focuses on issues related to depression, especially on male depression. We aimed to adapt gender sensitive assessment tools in connection with male depression and men’s mental health which contribute to an early identification of at risk males.
We are planning to develop a quick and easy-to-use mobile application for primary health care system to measure depressive symptoms along with information about implicit attitudes (related to suicide ideations). It could help GPs when it is necessary to refer patient special needs.
We also measure stigmatizing attitudes toward depression. In this examination we measure psychophysiological parameters (eye tracker, galvanic skin response, face reader) and use questionnaires during our vignette study.
In connection with male depressive symptoms we examine dangerous, high risk-taking driving style, which is a very typical externalizing symptom of depression.
In another part of our research we investigated the association between perceived stress and depression, vital exhaustion during different periods of pandemic.
Keywords: depression, suicidal ideation, suicidal behavior, gender specific symptoms, risk-taking driving style, externalizing symptoms, implicit attitudes, stigmatizing attitudes, application development, psychophysiological parameters