Faurholt-Jepsen M, Brage S, Vinberg M, Jensen HM, Christensen EM, Knorr U, Kessing LV. Electronic monitoring of psychomotor activity as a supplementary objective measure of depression severity.
Nord J Psychiatry 2015;
69:118-25. [PMID:
25131795 DOI:
10.3109/08039488.2014.936501]
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Abstract
BACKGROUND
Rating scales used to assess the severity of depression e.g. the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale 17-item (HDRS-17) partly rely on the patient's subjective experience and reporting. Such subjective measures tend to have low reliability and adding objective measures to complement the assessment of depression severity would be a major step forward.
AIMS
To investigate correlations between electronic monitoring of psychomotor activity and severity of depression according to HDRS-17.
METHODS
A total of 36 patients with unipolar disorder (n = 18) or bipolar disorder (n = 18) and 31 healthy control persons aged 18-60 years were included. Psychomotor activity was measured using a combined heart rate and movement sensor device (Actiheart) for 3 consecutive days, 24 h a day.
RESULTS
We found that sleeping heart rate (beats/min) correlated with HDRS-17 in both patients with unipolar disorder and bipolar disorder (unadjusted model: B = 0.46, 95% CI 0.037-0.89, P = 0.034). In contrast, correlations between activity energy expenditure (kJ/kg/day), cardio-respiratory fitness (mlO2/min/kg) and HDRS-17 were non-significant.
CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that measuring sleeping heart rate in non-experimental daily life could be an objective supplementary method to measure the severity of depression and perhaps indicate presence of insomnia.
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