PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASURES IN AGITATED AND RETARDED DEPRESSED PATIENTS

Physiological and clinical observations were made on 35 patients with the diagnosis of primary depression of moderate or severe degree. Seventeen patients were predominantly agitated clinically, 13 were predominantly retarded and 5 showed neither feature. The depressed patients were compared with normal subjects matched for age and sex. The palmar skin conductance (sweat gland activity), the pulse rate and the forearm extensor electromyogram were recorded during the presentation of 20 identical 1 kHz auditory stimuli of 100 dB intensity and 1 sec duration occurring at intervals ranging from 45 to 80 sec. Measures derived included the skin conductance level, the size of the first GSR, the habituation rate of the GSR's, the number of spontaneous skin conductance fluctuations, the pulse rate and EMG level. Clear-cut differences were found between the two major groups of depressed patients: the agitated patients had a high mean skin conductance (more sweat gland activity) and more spontaneous skin conductance fluctuations than the retarded patients. The agitated patients showed no GSR habituation on average while all but one of the retarded patients displayed so little reactivity that their habituation rate was not calculable. In these measures, the normal values lay between those for the two groups of patients. The size of the first GSR was diminished in all the depressives as compared with the normal values. Pulse rate was increased only in the agitated patients. Discrimination between the agitated and retarded patients was complete with respect to the habituation rate and spontaneous fluctuations. The results were, in general, compatible with the view that retardation and agitation are independent phenomena, not mutually exclusive. © 1969.