Greden J F, Carroll B J
Biol Psychiatry. 1980 Aug;15(4):575-87.
Szabadi et al. claimed that speech pause time--the silent interval between phonations--was significantly elongated during episodes of unipolar depressions; thus representing an objective measure of psychomotor retardation. Phonation times were said to be unchanged. To replicate and possibly expand these findings, we measured pause and phonation times among four unipolar (UP) and three bipolar (BP) endogenously depressed inpatients. Speech was recorded while patients counted from one to ten at their desired rate, and then converted to paper prints with a voice-operated electrical relay. Among all patients, pause times were substantially longer during base-line medication-free periods than at discharge. Progressive decreases occurred in conjunction with clinical improvement. These data replicated Szabadi's observation on UP patients and extended it to BP depressed patients. Of potential clinical importance, in two cases we documented decreases in pause time of more than 50% within several days after starting treatment. Speech pause times may be pragmatically useful as objective pathophysiologic markers in depression. Significant decreases occur with recovery, and early decreases during treatment may, like changes in REM sleep, be predictive of ultimate clinical response.
萨巴迪等人声称，言语停顿时间（发声之间的无声间隔）在单相抑郁发作期间显著延长；因此代表了精神运动迟缓的一种客观测量方法。据说发声时间没有变化。为了重复并可能扩展这些发现，我们测量了4名单相（UP）和3名双相（BP）内源性抑郁住院患者的停顿和发声时间。当患者以自己期望的速度从1数到10时记录语音，然后通过声控继电器转换为纸质打印件。在所有患者中，基线无药物治疗期间的停顿时间比出院时长得多。随着临床改善，停顿时间逐渐减少。这些数据重复了萨巴迪对UP患者的观察，并将其扩展到BP抑郁患者。具有潜在临床重要性的是，在两例患者中，我们记录到开始治疗后几天内停顿时间减少超过50%。言语停顿时间作为抑郁症客观病理生理标志物可能具有实际用途。随着康复，停顿时间显著减少，治疗期间早期的减少可能像快速眼动睡眠的变化一样，预示最终的临床反应。
