Depression and Excessive Reassurance-Seeking

Abstract

This article describes a program of research on excessive reassurance-seeking and its relation to depression. Relevant theory, central predictions, and empirical work are summarized, and the research program's implications for depression science and clinical work are noted. We argue that excessive reassurance-seeking (a) is implicated as a potential contributory cause of depressive symptoms; (b) is involved in generating negative interpersonal outcomes, such as interpersonal disruptions and "contagious" depression; (c) relates to other theoretically important depression-related constructs in ways that may broaden and enhance depression theory and science; and (d) has potential import for the treatment and prevention of depression. The article may be of interest to those studying the social and clinical psychology of depression, as well as those engaged in the psychotherapy of depressed people, and may inspire future theoretical, empirical, and clinical work, with the ultimate aim of increasing understanding of and decreasing suffering from depression, a vexing (and increasing) human problem.