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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
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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 

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