Washington: Depressed students are twice as likely as their classmates to drop out of college, new research shows.

However, the research also indicates that lower grade point averages depended upon a student's type of depression, said Daniel Eisenberg, professor at University of Michigan (U-M) School of Public Health and principal study investigator.

There are two core symptoms of depression - loss of interest and pleasure in activities, or depressed mood - but only loss of interest is associated with lower grade point averages.

"The correlation between depression and academic performance is mainly driven by loss of interest in activities," Eisenberg said.

"This is significant because it means individuals can be very depressed and very functional, depending on which type of depression they have. I think that this can be true for many high achieving people, who may feel down and hopeless but not lose interest in activities.

"Lots of students who have significant depression on some dimension are performing just fine, but may be at risk and go unnoticed because there is no noticeable drop in functioning."

Students with both depression and anxiety had especially poor academic performance, said a U-M release. IANS