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The theory of depression given by Sigmund Freud is true, and now we have proof for that, a new study has revealed.

The new study suggests that people with a history of depression react differently to the feelings of guilt when compared to others who do not get depressed. The results were revealed after studying the brain scan of the people.

The scan showed activation in certain parts of the brain associated with guilt in people who were recovering from depression even when they were told a scenario where someone else was at fault.

According to researchers, this study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, is the first concrete evidence of brain mechanisms that Sigmund Freud explained a century ago. He had said in his theory that guilt and self-blame are key to understanding depression.

"Our research provides the first brain mechanism that could explain the classical observation by Freud that depression is distinguished from normal sadness by proneness to exaggerated feelings of guilt or self-blame," lead researcher Dr. Roland Zahn of the University of Manchester said in a news release.

"For the first time, we chart the regions of the brain that interact to link detailed knowledge about socially appropriate behavior - the anterior temporal lobe - with feelings of guilt - the subgenual region of the brain - in people who are prone to depression."

For the study, 22 people with no history of depression and 25 people who previously had a major depressive episode were asked to imagine that they had behaved poorly, like being "stingy" or "bossy" towards their best friend, or that their best friend had acted badly towards them.

The scan results showed that people with a history of depression were less able to "couple" the brain regions associated with guilt and knowledge of appropriate behavior together when compared to those who had never been depressed. Also, people with no history of depression are thus more likely to blame others.

"Interestingly, this 'decoupling' only occurs when people prone to depression feel guilty or blame themselves, but not when they feel angry or blame others. This could reflect a lack of access to details about what exactly was inappropriate about their behavior when feeling guilty, thereby extending guilt to things they are not responsible for and feeling guilty for everything," Zahn said.

This could also explain why some people react to stress with depression rather than aggression, the report said.

Zahn also said that people who were recovering from depression were more prone to experience another episode again since their brain is vulnerable. This study should also help scientists target new therapies or drug treatments.

Researchers plan to do further studies to be able to determine if brain scans could also predict the risk of a recovering patient going through another episode of depression and to see " if the unusual activation of the anterior temporal lobe in depressed patients can be unlearned," the report said.