A linear mathematical model for computerized analyses of mood curves. An empirical investigation on mood courses in depressive and schizophrenic inpatients.

The repetitious measurement of actual mood alterations becomes more and more common in research oriented psychiatric departments. In this article a new method for the mathematical description and statistical evaluation of time series data is presented. This computerized approach is less restrictive than other procedures and seems to be very appropriate to the complex structure of time series. First results on mood courses of depressive and schizophrenic patients are presented to demonstrate the usefulness and validity of this new method.