Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:57:46.651Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Validity of Actometer and Speech Activity Measures in the Assessment of Depressed Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Hamish P. D. Godfrey  and
Robert G. Knight
Hamish P. D. Godfrey
Affiliation:
University of Otago, Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
Robert G. Knight
Affiliation:
University of Otago, Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Daily levels of anxious and depressed mood, as well as motor and speech activity were monitored for five depressed and four hypomanic patients during the courses of their in-patient treatment. The data were compared with results from nine matched control subjects. Motor activity was assessed using the actometer—a wrist watch which translates activity into movement of the watch hands—and the speech activity by recording the pause, phonation, and total times taken to recite the digits from one to ten. Validity data for the actometer and for total and pause time were found to be encouraging as outcome monitors for the treatment of depressive affect; the significant results from the total time measure suggest that this simple method is worthy of more widespread use in clinical settings.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 145 , Issue 2 , August 1984 , pp. 159 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1984 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1973) The Diagnosis and Management of Depression. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Carney, R. M. (1981) Facial electromyography as a predictor of treatment outcome in depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 485–489.Google Scholar
Craighead, W. E. (1981) Issues resulting from treatment studies. In Behavior Therapy for Depression (ed. Rehm L. P.). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, A. M. & Williams, J. M. G. (1982) Mood-induction research: Its implications for clinical depression. Behavior Research and Therapy, 20, 373–382.Google Scholar
Greden, J. F., Albala, A. A., Smokler, I. A., Gardner, R. & Carrol, B. J. (1981) Speech pause time: A marker of psychomotor retardation among endogenous depressives. Biological Psychiatry, 16, 851–859.Google Scholar
Hersen, M., Eisler, R. M., Alford, G. & Agras, W. S. (1973) Effects of token economy on neurotic depression: An experimental analysis. Behavior Therapy, 4, 392–397.Google Scholar
Kupfer, D. J., Detre, T. P., Foster, F. G., Tucker, G. J. & Delgado, J. (1972) The application of Delgado's telemetric mobility recorder to human studies. Behavioral Biology, 7, 585–590.Google Scholar
Lubin, B. (1967) Manual for the Depression Adjective Checklists. San Diego, Educational and Industrial Testing Service.Google Scholar
Luria, R. C. (1975) The validity and reliability of the visual analogue mood scale. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 51–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacFarlain, R. A. & Hersen, M. (1974) Continuous measurement of activity level in psychiatric patients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 30, 37–39.Google Scholar
Rehm, L. P. (1976) Assessment of depression. In Behavioral Assessment: A Practical Handbook (eds. Hersen M. & Bellack A. S.). New York: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Saris, W. H. M. & Binkhorst, R. A. (1977) The use of pedometer and actometer in studying daily physical activity in man. Part I: Reliability of pedometer and actometer. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 37, 219–228.Google Scholar
Schulman, J. L. & Reisman, J. M. (1959) An objective measure of hyperactivity. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 64, 455.Google Scholar
Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L. & Lushene, R. E. (1970) Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. California: Consulting Psychologists' Press.Google Scholar
Szabadi, E., Bradshaw, C. M. & Besson, J. A. O. (1976) Elongation of pause-time in speech: A simple, objective measure of motor retardation in depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 592–597.Google Scholar
Teasdale, J. D., Fogarty, S. J. & Williams, J. M. G. (1980) Speech rate as a measure of short-term variation in depression. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 19, 271–278.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wallander, J. L. & Conger, J. C. (1981) Assessment of hyperactive children: Psychometric, methodological, and practical considerations. Progress in Behavior Modification, 11, 249–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, J. G., Barlow, D. H. & Agras, W. S. (1972) Behavioral measurement of severe depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 72, 330–337.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.