No psychomotor slowing in fine motor tasks in dysthymia

Pier, M.P.B.I.; Hulstijn, Wouter; Sabbe, Bernard

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2004.05.002

Cited by 32 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…For example, no diff erences were found in mean stroke duration, mean stroke length, and mean peak velocity between depressive patients and controls by Mergl, et al, (2004) ; velocity of drawing performance of depressive subjects was similar to the controls ( Mergl, et al, 2007 ). The current fi ndings are also consistent with the results of Pier, Hulstijn, and Sabbe (2004) , who found no psychomotor slowing in digitally recorded motor task performance by unmedicated dysthymic patients.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…The duration of air-time while writing was longer in participants with depression, supporting the idea that participants with depression require more time for planning the next movement. This was in the line with previous suggestions that participants with depression display spatial and cognitive defi cits ( Lesser, Boone, Mehringer, Wohl, Miller, & Berman 1996 ;Pier, Hulstijn, & Sabbe, 2004 ). The fi nal conclusion, that the writing pressure was the best handwriting predictor of depression, was in line with the previous results ( Fried, Storer, King, & Lodder, 1991 ;Yanagita, Willcox, Masaki, Chen, He, Rodriguez, et al, 2006 ).…”

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confidence: 91%

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Little Evidence for the Graphical Markers of Depression

Gawda

2013

Percept Mot Skills

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The purpose was to test whether specific characteristics of handwriting can distinguish patients diagnosed with major depression from healthy controls and patients with bipolar disorder. Handwriting samples from 30 patients with major depressive disorder and 30 patients in the bipolar depressive phase were compared to samples from 30 patients in the bipolar manic phase and 60 healthy controls. Forensic document experts examined all 150 written samples of the same text and empirically measured graphical aspects potentially related to depression, such as direction of the baseline, pen pressure, tremor, forms of the letters 'm', 'n', 'a', and 'o', sizes of the letters and writing zones, the initial and final shapes of letters, slant, and impulse. Three handwriting parameters of 32 examined differed significantly between controls and patients with depression (major depression or depressed bipolar patients). However, there were no statistically significant differences in these parameters between depressed patients and bipolar patients in the manic phase, indicating that these handwriting characteristics cannot distinguish depressed patients from manic patients. The main hypothesis, that psychomotor slowing is visible in handwriting, was not confirmed.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

supporting

confidence: 91%

Little Evidence for the Graphical Markers of Depression

Gawda

2013

Percept Mot Skills

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“…Traditional approaches to the study of psychomotor agitation and retardation in depression have included activity monitoring (Foster and Kupfer, 1975; Kupfer et al, 1974; Wolff et al, 1985), and assessments of gross body movement (Ulrich and Harms, 1985), speech production (Greden et al, 1981; Widlocher, 1983), and motor speed (Ghozlan and Widlocher, 1989; Lapierre and Butter, 1980). More recently, investigators have employed measures of handwriting movement to more precisely quantify fine motor activity associated with psychomotor retardation in patients with depressive disorders (Sabbe et al, 1996; 1999; Tucha et al, 2002; Pier et al 2004a; 2004b). Comprehensive reviews of this work have been previously published (Schrijvers et al, 2008; Sobin and Sackeim, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative assessment of motor abnormalities in untreated patients with major depressive disorder

Lohr

May

Caligiuri

2013

Journal of Affective Disorders

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The primary purpose of this study was to examine motor physiology disturbances in a group of patients with untreated major depressive disorder using sensitive instrumental procedures. The secondary aim of the study was to examine the relationship of the affective symptom state to these motor assessments. The authors studied 40 individuals meeting DSM-IV criteria for unipolar major depressive disorder and 40 healthy comparison subjects. Electromechanical measures of force steadiness (FS), simple reaction time (RT), movement time (MT) and scaling of movement velocity to distance (velocity scaling, VS) were performed. The authors found that performance on the force steadiness, movement time, and velocity scaling measures was significantly poorer in the subjects with depression. There was no difference between the groups on the measure of reaction time. The force steadiness, reaction time, movement time, and velocity scaling scores were not associated with affective state. This study demonstrates that motor abnormalities suggestive of basal ganglia dysfunction occur in many patients with major depressive disorder, and that these abnormalities may exist in the absence of current psychotropic medication treatment. The finding of impaired movement time and velocity scaling in the presence of normal reaction time suggests a neuromotor or parkinsonian pathophysiology for slowness in depression.

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“…In samples including individuals with and without mood disorders, PMR is most strongly associated with fatigue, low mood, anhedonia, and concentration difficulties [Zimmerman et al, 2006]. Other findings indicate that PMR is more prevalent in melancholic than nonmelancholic [Parker et al, 1995;Pier et al, 2004b;Sobin and Sackeim, 1997] and atypical MDD [Benazzi, 2002], associated with MDE severity [Benazzi, 2002], and is more often a feature in unipolar and bipolar-I depression than bipolar-II depression [Hantouche and Akiskal, 2005;Mitchell and Malhi, 2004]. Thus, there is some evidence supporting the specificity and clinical plausibility of the ''retarded depression'' phenotype (MDD with PMR), which is characterized by a decline in motivated behavior, cognition, energy, and pleasure as well as other associated features.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing major depression phenotypes by presence and type of psychomotor disturbance in adolescents and young adults

2008

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Major depressive disorder (MDD) is phenomenologically heterogeneous, which has prompted investigation of intermediate MDD phenotypes based on specific key symptoms. Presence and type of psychomotor disturbance may be an important psychopathologic feature that differentiates clinically distinct forms of juvenile MDD. This study examined the phenotypic status of three putative MDD phenotypes in a community sample of 941 youths: (1) agitated depression (MDD with psychomotor agitation), (2) retarded depression (MDD with psychomotor retardation), and (3) agitated-retarded depression (MDD with psychomotor agitation and retardation within an episode). Hasler et al.'s [2004: Neuropsychopharmacology 29:1765-1781] criteria of specificity (degree of association with relevant symptoms and conditions related to the disease of interest versus other psychiatric conditions), stability (degree of stability over time), and heritability (degree of familial aggregation with relevant conditions) were used to evaluate the phenotypic significance of these subtypes. Results were suggestive that agitated depression was a relatively specific phenotypic syndrome characterized by irritability, arousal, physical complaints, and vulnerability to anxiety disorders and alcohol dependence; low stability across depressive episodes; and low heritability. Agitated-retarded depression was relatively specific and characterized by increased severity, recurrence, vegetative symptoms, suicidal ideation, social impairment, endogeneity, and vulnerability to anxiety disorders and bulimia; low stability across episodes; and modest heritability. Although retarded depression was associated with some specific distinguishing characteristics, most associations were explained by the increased severity of this phenotype. Retarded depression evidenced little stability or heritability. These findings offer partial support of the phenotypic status of agitated and agitated-retarded depression in youths.

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No psychomotor slowing in fine motor tasks in dysthymia

Cited by 32 publications

References 29 publications

Little Evidence for the Graphical Markers of Depression

Little Evidence for the Graphical Markers of Depression

Quantitative assessment of motor abnormalities in untreated patients with major depressive disorder

Characterizing major depression phenotypes by presence and type of psychomotor disturbance in adolescents and young adults

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