Prosody impairment in depression measured through acoustic analysis

This work attempts to explore the association between depression and prosod y impairment through acoustic techniques of voice analysis. For this purpos e, we selected 10 quantitative vocal parameters, obtained instrumentally, a nd related to the variability and psychomotor control of phonation, which w e hate considered as prosody indicators. The sample consisted of 23 patient s with diagnosis DSM-III-R of major depression and a control group of 20 he althy volunteers. We obtained results in ii of the 10 acoustic parameters t hat suggest reduced prosody in depressed subjects. In a second voice test, carried out 2 months after baseline situation, and while patients were unde r antidepressant treatment, it was not possible to demonstrate that all the se prosody indicators change to normality in those 13 subjects who clinical ly improved.