No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Background: There is a relative scarcity of studies on major depressive disorder that use objective assessment methods to explore the psychomotor effects of antidepressants. Striatal dopaminergic disturbances are known to be involved in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder that is associated with psychomotor retardation. Because of its additional dopaminergic mechanism, the psychomotor effects of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor sertraline merit further exploration. Methods: In 19 patients diagnosed with a current major depressive episode, clinical variables and graphic motor activity were assessed applying digitized figure copying tasks during a 6-week regimen of sertraline. Patients’ baseline and weekly psychomotor performance was compared with the outcomes of 22 healthy, unmedicated controls. Results: Patients’ psychomotor slowing had improved after 6 weeks on sertraline as reflected by reductions in initiation and movement times on the simple line and figure copying tasks and decreased initiation times for the complex figure copying task relative to their baseline outcomes. Conclusions: The current study found evidence pointing to potential beneficial effects of sertraline after a 6-week treatment period in the lower-order cognitive and motor components involved in the graphic motor performance of depressed patients. The present findings are discussed in terms of the mechanism of action of sertraline.

In a previous study young seriously underweight anorexia nervosa (AN) patients in the early phase of treatment were found to react faster in psychomotor tasks. To further understand this finding we studied the impact of weight restoration on the performance of AN patients in drawing and copying tasks. A group of 17 female AN patients, aged 14 to 25, was compared with 17 healthy controls, matched for sex, age and educational level. Patients were tested when severely underweight and after weight restoration. Control subjects were also tested twice. Using computerized recording and analysis of writing and drawing behavior, reaction times and drawing times were derived, while cognitive and motor demands were manipulated. Overall, AN patients showed shorter reaction times in copying tasks and shorter drawing time in the drawing task than normal controls, and this pattern persisted after weight restoration. No significant group (AN vs. controls) by session (test vs. retest) effect emerged. The finding of a consistent pattern of shorter reaction and drawing times in AN patients before and after weight restoration is compatible with a personality characteristic of perfectionism and overachievement in AN patients.

Background: In a previous study, using computerized analysis of fine motor behaviour, seriously underweight anorexia nervosa patients in the early phase of treatment were found to have shorter reaction times, but not movement times, in experimental drawing and copying tasks. These differences persisted with weight restoration. Sampling and Methods: Using computerized analysis of writing and drawing behaviour during the performance of a Digit Symbol Substitution Test, 15 anorexia nervosa patients were compared with 15 normal controls, matched for age, sex and educational level. Patients were retested after weight restoration, as were controls after a similar interval. Results: Patients turned out to be superior in the cognitive, but not in the motor aspects of the Digit Symbol Substitution Test. These differences persisted after weight restoration. A practice effect, due to repeated testing, was found in both groups, which turned out to be cognitive in nature. Conclusions: The findings show that this new technique can add to the interpretation of classic neuropsychological tests. The results are compatible with previous findings of intact or even superior functioning in anorexia nervosa patients on neuropsychological tasks requiring considerable cognitive effort.

No abstract

AN patients seem to show a fast response style combined with good sequence planning capacity.