Psychomotor Activity in Affective States

Telemetric activity recordings were obtained during predrug base line and drug treatment periods in a group of 11 hospitalized depressives in order to assess whether there are specific psychomotor activity patterns in particular types of affective illness and whether the amount of psychomotor activity on admission has any diagnostic or prognostic value. Seven unipolar depressives and four bipolar (manic depressive) depressed patients were studied. Results indicate that unipolar patients exhibit significantly more psychomotor activity prior to treatment than do bipolar depressives and that as each group improves clinically, these differences disappear. When unipolar patients do not improve, their telemetric activity levels do not diminish, whereas a statistically significant diminution in activity levels occurs in the improved unipolar patients.