Electronic monitoring of psychomotor activity as a supplementary objective measure of depression severity

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.

• Bipolar disorder
• Hamilton Depression Rating Scale 17-item
• Heart rate and movement sensor
• Psychomotor activity
• Unipolar disorder

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank all the health staff and participants involved in the study.

Conflict of interests: MFJ has been a consultant for Eli Lilly. SB has no conflict of interest. MV has been a consultant for Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Servier and Lundbeck. HMJ has been a consultant for AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Pfizer. HMJ has been an advisory board member for Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen-Cilag, Pfizer and Schering-Plough. HMJ has been a speaker for Eli Lilly, Janssen-Cilag and Otsuka. EMC has been a consultant for Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Servier, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lundbeck and Medilink. UK has been a consultant for AstraZeneca. LVK has been a consultant for Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Lundbeck, AtraZeneca, Pfizer, Wyeth, Servier and Janssen-Cilag. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Contributors

LVK and MFJ conceived the study and authored the protocol. All authors helped implement the study. All authors contributed to, and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Role of funding support

None.