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Updated: Aug 30, 2026

Animal Models of Depression - Chronic Despair Model (CDM)
Published on: September 23, 2021
Modeling unipolar depression as a chaotic process
Elaine M Heiby1, Ian S Pagano, Daniel D Blaine
1Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Gartley Hall, 2430 Campus Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822. heiby@hawaii.edu
Abstract:
This study inspected the deterministic structure of unipolar depression. Two women self-monitored sadness hourly 10 times a day for 6 months. One woman had a recurrent history of unipolar depression, and the other did not. Data were analyzed by visual inspection, examination of the Fourier transforms of the time plots, and the correlation dimension. Results suggested that in addition to a strong periodic component that existed only within the depressed subject's mood time series, a low-dimensional chaotic process might have been operating. In the nondepressed control subject, no such periodicity or process could be identified. The findings support maladaptive deterministic theories of mood disorders and have implications for the assessment of unipolar depression.
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