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Vocal indicators of mood change in depression

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Abstract

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.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, 9 route de Drize, CH-1226, Carouge-Geneva, Switzerland

    Klaus R. Scherer

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  1. Heiner Ellgring
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Correspondence to Klaus R. Scherer.

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This study is based on psychiatric interviews that were conducted as part of the Longitudinal Study on Depression at the Max-Planck-Institute 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. Tom Johnstone and Marcia Smith provided valuable comments on the present manuscript.

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Ellgring, H., Scherer, K.R. Vocal indicators of mood change in depression. J Nonverbal Behav 20, 83–110 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02253071

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