Muscle power and gait patterns of depressed persons

Background: Gait characteristic and muscle power are often described in the clinical literature but with little empirical support. We assessed some pa rameters of gait and muscle power using simple and standardized methods wit hin a framework based principally on classic clinical observations of depre ssion. Method: 20 depressed inpatients were examined with standard tests of isometric muscle power and gait parameters, which measure step length, ave rage walking speed, maximal walking speed,and three-minute walk distance. T he results were compared with those of 20 matched healthy controls. The exa mination procedure was repeated after a three week period of inpatient trea tment and significant symptomatic improvement. Results: As predicted by our hypothesis depressed patients' muscle power and gait characteristics diffe red clearly from normal controls. Significant improvements after 3 weeks of inpatient treatment were found above all in extension of the knee and exte nsion of the elbow tests as well as in all measures of our gait analysis. H owever, all gait parameters still differed significantly from those of heal thy controls. Conclusions: 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 inpatie nt sample.