[Muscle strength and gait patterns of depressed people]

Gait characteristic and muscle power are often described in the clinical literature but with little empirical support. We assessed some parameters of gait and muscle power using simple and standardized methods within a framework based principally on classic clinical observations of depression.

20 depressed inpatients were examined with standard tests of isometric muscle power and gait parameters, which measure step length, average walking speed, maximal walking speed, and three-minute walk distance. The results were compared with those of 20 matched healthy controls. The examination procedure was repeated after a three week period of inpatient treatment and significant symptomatic improvement.

As predicted by our hypothesis depressed patients' muscle power and gait characteristics differed clearly from normal controls. Significant improvements after 3 weeks of inpatient treatment were found above all in extension of the knee and extension of the elbow tests as well as in all measures of our gait analysis. However, all gait parameters still differed significantly from those of healthy controls.

Using simple but reliable tests which were used for the first time in psychiatry we examined certain relationships between depression and motor function in a moderately to severely depressed inpatient sample.