An experimental study of visual averaged evoked responses (V. AER) and pain measures (PM) in patients with depressive disorders.

In a group of 100 patients admitted to the Department of Psychiatry in Umeå between January 1973 and July 1974 with depressive syndromes, pain measures - PM - and visual averaged evoked responses - V.AER - have been investigated and the patients have been rated by the doctor by means of the Cronholm-Ottosson depression rating scale. According to the results of V. AER patients have been grouped as augmenters or reducers, depending upon the tendency to augment or to reduce the intensity of incoming signals with increasing stimulus intensity. V. AER are found to vary with age but not with sex. Differences are found between patients with and those without a psychotic dimension of their depressive syndromes. Patients with depressive syndromes of psychotic dimension tend more often to be reducers. When patients are divided according to diagnostic groups no differences are found. PM are found to vary with sex and detection threshold - DT - are found to vary with age while pain threshold - PT - tolerance level - TL - and pain endurance - PE - do not vary with age. Patients with depressive syndromes of a psychotic dimension are found to have higher PM while there is no consistent picture when patients are divided according to diagnostic groups. Possible explanations for contradictory results found by other authors are discussed.