Reduced ability to discriminate colours – an under-recognised feature of depressive disorders? A pilot study

Abstract

Background: Although in clinical practice an impairment of sensory perception is frequently reported by depressed patients no mention of these symptoms is made in DSM-5, ICD-10 or ICD-11. Previous studies on colour perception have largely relied on patient self-reports and few have studied colour discrimination.

Methods: The ability to discriminate small colour differences was assessed in 30 patients currently experiencing a moderate to severe depressive episode (ICD-10: F32.1-2, F33.1-2 or F31.3-4) and 32 healthy controls using the colour buttons of the Farnsworth Munsell 100-Hue test. Data were analysed by standard tests for comparing two groups (t-test, Mann–Whitney U-test, Chi-square test) and by ordinal regression and generalised estimating equation models.

Results: Depressed patients failed significantly earlier (i.e., at larger differences between adjacent buttons) to discriminate between colours. This finding was retained after adjustment for potential confounders. There was no significant association with age, gender or depression score.

Conclusions: We found a reduction in the ability to discriminate colours in depressed patients. This finding underlines the importance of sensory deficits as part of the symptomatology of depression. Sensory impairments should be taken into account in clinical care of patients with depression and should be included in diagnostic manuals. Further studies in larger samples including intra-individual comparisons between the depressed and the remitted state of patients are needed.

Key points

• In clinical practice, an impairment of sensory perception is frequently reported by depressed patients.

• However, no mention of these symptoms is made in the commonly used diagnostic manuals.

• In this pilot study, depressed patients and controls differed significantly in terms of the ability to discriminate colours with patients performing worse than their healthy counterparts.

• Sensory impairments should be taken into account in clinical care of patients with depression and should be included in diagnostic manuals.

Keywords:

• Colour perception
• colour discrimination
• sensory impairment
• depression

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.