NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young women who have feelings of depression are more likely to have unreasonable expectations in their personal relationships, researchers in Canada report.

In a study of female college students, women who fit the criteria for dysphoria--a mix of anxiety, depression and irritability--tended to have higher expectations and standards for themselves and others in their personal relationships than women without dysphoria who had never been depressed, the investigators found.

These higher expectations seem to explain why women with dysphoria are more hostile in their interpersonal relationships, according to the report in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

Feelings of depression can lead to many interpersonal problems, Dr. Scott B. McCabe, of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, told Reuters Health. These problems often result from symptoms caused by depression, such as poor sleep and concentration, fatigue and irritability, according to McCabe, who is the senior author of the study.

In previous research, McCabe found that when depressed women try to solve a problem with their spouse, they often become more negative, although the spouse does not. In contrast, women who are not depressed do not tend to become more negative when they try to solve a problem in their relationship, according to McCabe.

In the new study, McCabe and a colleague, Robyn E. Wiebe, were interested in seeing how the irritability and hostility that often go hand-in-hand with depression and dysphoria are related to the difficulties women with feelings of depression have with other people.

"It appears that when depressed, people have very high expectations for how others should behave in interactions with them," McCabe said. When others fail to live up to their standards, depressed people may become frustrated, irritable or hostile, according to the Canadian researcher. The expectations of the depressed person may be unreasonable in the other person's opinion, McCabe said, or they may be unknown to the other person.

What depressed people can learn from the research, McCabe said, is to try to recognize "that their expectations for others are likely too excessive."

As for the people who are around depressed people, he said, "It is important to recognize that these behavioral styles are likely temporary and result from depressive symptoms rather than personality traits."

SOURCE: Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 2002;21:67-90.

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