Depression: Defence Mechanisms in Speech

Hinchliffe, Mary K.; Lancashire, M; Roberts, F. J.

doi:10.1192/bjp.118.545.471

Cited by 37 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…counting from one to ten (16-18, 25-27); "free" or "spontaneous" speech in which the patient either is asked to speak on a topic for a certain amount of time (e.g. 28) or is subjected to a semistructured interview (e.g. 29); or reading aloud (e.g.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic analysis of speech variables during depression and after improvement

Nilsonne

1987

Acta Psychiatr Scand

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Speech recordings were made of 16 depressed patients during depression and after clinical improvement. The recordings were analyzed using a computer program which extracts acoustic parameters from the fundamental frequency contour of the voice. The percent pause time, the standard deviation of the voice fundamental frequency distribution, the standard deviation of the rate of change of the voice fundamental frequency and the average speed of voice change were found to correlate to the clinical state of the patient. The mean fundamental frequency, the total reading time and the average rate of change of the voice fundamental frequency did not differ between the depressed and the improved group. The acoustic measures were more strongly correlated to the clinical state of the patient as measured by global depression scores than to single depressive symptoms such as retardation or agitation.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic analysis of speech variables during depression and after improvement

Nilsonne

1987

Acta Psychiatr Scand

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“…in empirical research, reduced rate or tempo of spontaneous speech in depression is a frequently reported finding and seems to be a stable phenomenon (e.g., Hinchliffe, Lancashire, & Roberts, 1971;Mandal, Srivastava, & Singh, 1990;Newman & Mather, 1938;Pope, Blass, Siegman, & Raher, 1970;Weintraub & Aronson, 1967; see review by Siegman, 1987a). Because the temporal variables are net consistently defined, it is not clear to what extent speech rate is affected by pause time.…”

Section: Temporal Aspects Of Speech and Depressionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Because the temporal variables are net consistently defined, it is not clear to what extent speech rate is affected by pause time. The empirical studies that have focused on the number and duration of pauses in depressive speech have yielded somewhat inconsistent results, although there are a large number of studies that report pause lengthening in depressive state (Andreasen, Alpert, & Martz, 1981;Breznitz, 1992;Darby, Simmons, & Berger, 1984;Kuny & Stassen, 1993;Nilsonne, 1987;Hinchliffe et al, 1971;Pope et al, 1970;Stassen, Bomben, & Giinther, 1991;Vanger, Summerfield, Rosen, & Watson, 1992;Weintraub & Aronson, 1967). Some of the discrepancies in the findings in this area are due to widely varying criteria used in the definition of speech pauses (for example, time periods varying between two to five seconds have been used as criteria for the identification of silent pauses).…”

Section: Temporal Aspects Of Speech and Depressionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Vocal indicators of mood change in depression

Ellgring¹,

Scherer

1996

J Nonverbal Behav

111

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ABSTRAC~In the framework of a major longitudinal study of depressive disorders, 11 female and 5 male depressives were audio-video-recorded while speaking with clinical interviewers. For selected utterances during depressed and recovered mood states several voice and speech parameters were obtained, using digital analysis techniques. As predicted, the results showed that an increase in speech rate and a decrease in pause duration are powerful indicators of mood improvement in the course of therapy (remission from depressive state). In female but not in male patients, a decrease in minimum fundamental frequency of the voice predicted mood improvement. These effects are discussed with respect to neurophysiological, cognitive, and emotional factors that have been suggested in the literature as possible causes for the patterns of motor expression observed in depressives. The data also point to the urgent need to systematically study gender differences in depressive speech behavior.One of the major issues in the treatment of psychopathological disorder is the behaviorally based evaluation of progress in therapy. This problem is particularly troublesome in charting changes of mood during therapy of patients with affective illness. In general, mood evaluation scales and psychiatric diagnoses are used for this purpose. Unfortunately, neither of these approaches is entirely satisfactory, given the multiple sources of error, particularly in relation to patients' ability and willingness to communicate about their actual state and the difficulties in clinical inference of mood state on the basis of interview impressions. As a consequence, there has been renewed interest in the possibility of using objective behavioral This study is based on psychiatric interviews that were conducted as part of the Longitudinal Study on Depression at the Max-Planck-lnstitute for Psychiatry, Munich. The authors acknowledge the contribution of Rudolf Bildhauer and Thomas Klos, who performed the vocal analyses (as part of their theses in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree in psychology) and who contribUted to an earlier draft of this paper. Torn Johnstone and Marcia Smith provided valuable comments on the present manuscript.Requests for reprints should be directed to: Prof.

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“…1984;Blackburn. 1975: Bouhuys andMulder-Hajonides, 1984;Bouhuys and Al berts, 1984;Godfrey and Knight, 1984;Greden et al, 1981: Hardy et al, 1984Helfrich et al, 1984: Hinchcliffe et al, 1971Darby, 1979: Johnson et al. 1986;Klos andEllgring, 1984: Newman andMather.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Speech Characteristics in Depression

1991

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This study examined the relationship between speech characteristics and psychopathology throughout the course of affective disturbances. Our sample comprised 20 depressive, hospitalized patients who had been selected according to the following criteria: (1) first admission; (2) long-term patient; (3) early entry into study; (4) late entry into study; (5) low scorer; (6) high scorer, and (7) distinct retarded-depressive symptomatology. Since our principal goal was to model the course of affective disturbances in terms of speech parameters, a total of 6 repeated measurements had been carried out over a 2-week period, including 3 different psychopathological instruments and speech recordings from automatic speech as well as from reading out loud. It turned out that neither applicability nor efficiency of single-parameter models depend in any way on the given, clinically defined subgroups. On the other hand, however, no significant differences between the clinically defined subgroups showed up with regard to basic speech parameters, except for the fact that low scorers seemed to take their time when producing utterances (this in contrast to all other patients who, on the average, had a considerably shorter recording time). As to the relationship between psychopathology and speech parameters over time, we found significant correlations: (1) in 60% of cases between the apathic syndrome and energy/dynamics; (2) in 50% of cases between the retarded-depressive syndrome and energy/dynamics; (3) in 45% of cases between the apathic syndrome and mean vocal pitch, and (4) in 71 % of low scores between the somatic-depressive syndrome and time duration of pauses. All in all, single parameter models turned out to cover only specific aspects of the individual courses of affective disturbances, thus speaking against a simple approach which applies in general.

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Depression: Defence Mechanisms in Speech

Cited by 37 publications

References 0 publications

Acoustic analysis of speech variables during depression and after improvement

Acoustic analysis of speech variables during depression and after improvement

Vocal indicators of mood change in depression

Speech Characteristics in Depression

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