Psychology Department, University of Jaén, Jaén, Spain.
Mental Health Unit, St. Agustín Universitary Hospital, Linares, Jaén, Spain.
PLoS One. 2019 Mar 14;14(3):e0213657. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213657. eCollection 2019.
The main aim of the present study was to explore the value of several measures of handwriting in the study of motor abnormalities in patients with bipolar or psychotic disorders. 54 adult participants with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder or bipolar disorder and 44 matched healthy controls, participated in the study. Participants were asked to copy a handwriting pattern consisting of four loops, with an inking pen on a digitizing tablet. We collected a number of classical, non-linear and geometrical measures of handwriting. The handwriting of patients was characterized by a significant decrease in velocity and acceleration and an increase in the length, disfluency and pressure with respect to controls. Concerning non-linear measures, we found significant differences between patients and controls in the Sample Entropy of velocity and pressure, Lempel-Ziv of velocity and pressure, and Higuchi Fractal Dimension of pressure. Finally, Lacunarity, a measure of geometrical heterogeneity, was significantly greater in handwriting patterns from patients than from controls. We did not find differences in any handwriting measure on function of the specific diagnosis or the antipsychotic dose. Results indicate that participants with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder or bipolar disorder exhibit significant motor impairments and that these impairments can be readily quantified using measures of handwriting movements. Besides, they suggest that motor abnormalities are a core feature of several mental disorders and they seem to be unrelated to the pharmacological treatment.
本研究的主要目的是探讨几种笔迹测量在研究双相或精神病障碍患者运动异常中的价值。54 名患有精神分裂症谱系障碍或双相障碍的成年参与者和 44 名匹配的健康对照者参与了这项研究。要求参与者使用蘸水笔在数字化仪上复制一个由四个环组成的笔迹模式。我们收集了许多经典的、非线性的和几何的笔迹测量方法。与对照组相比，患者的笔迹特征是速度和加速度显著降低，长度、不流畅度和压力增加。关于非线性测量，我们发现患者和对照组在速度和压力的样本熵、速度和压力的 Lempel-Ziv、压力的 Higuchi 分形维数方面存在显著差异。最后，几何异质性的度量——空隙度，在患者的笔迹模式中明显大于对照组。我们没有发现任何笔迹测量方法在特定诊断或抗精神病药物剂量上存在差异。结果表明，患有精神分裂症谱系障碍或双相障碍的参与者表现出明显的运动障碍，并且这些障碍可以通过笔迹运动的测量来轻易地量化。此外，这些结果表明运动异常是几种精神障碍的核心特征，而且似乎与药物治疗无关。
