Which Face Do You Look at First? New Test Claims to Identify People at Risk Of Depression

Eight in 10 people who have a past history of depression will suffer from the illness again in the future.

It's difficult to know who may be at risk but scientists say a simple test could reveal how likely it is for someone to relapse.

Have a look at the below images and make a note of which you naturally focus on first:

People who focus more on angry faces, compared with neutral or happy expressions are at greater risk of suffering depression, according to researchers.

The images are similar to ones used in a study by Binghamton University, who recruited 160 women - 60 with a past history of depression, 100 with no history of depression.

They showed each woman a series of two faces, one with a neutral expression and the other with either an angry, sad or happy expression.

They used eye-tracking and found that women with a past history of depression paide more attention to the angry faces.

Among women with a history of prior depression, those who tended to look the most at the angry faces were at greatest risk for developing depression again over the next two years.

'If you're walking around day to day, your attention will just be drawn to certain things and you'll tend to look at some things more than others,' said Brandon Gibb, professor of psychology at Binghamton University.

'What we showed is if your attention is drawn to people who appear to be angry with you or critical of you, then you're at risk for depression.'

'I think the most interesting thing about this is that we followed these women for two years, and the women who are paying attention to angry faces are the most likely to become depressed again, and they become depressed in the shortest amount of time.

'So they're at greatest risk,' said graduate student and lead author of the study Mary Woody.

The red part of image on the left shows where one of the test subjects placed her focus

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