Linska K. Clinical and psychophysiological determinants and markers of the effectiveness of therapy for patients with depression

The dissertation is devoted to the development of a method for an objective assessment of the effectiveness of therapy for patients with depression based on measurements of the reaction time and other parameters of involuntary response to audiovisual stimuli in the process of a comprehensive psychodiagnostic and psychophysiological study. The main study group consisted of 97 patients with depression (16 men and 81 women), including: 51 people with a diagnosis of depressive episode and 46 people with a diagnosis of recurrent depressive disorder. The control group consisted of 64 healthy volunteers (12 men and 52 women) of comparable age. The following were studied: clinical and psychopathological, psychodiagnostic and psychophysiological characteristics (response time to verbal and non-verbal stimuli and the integral indicator of involuntary psychophysiological reactions “Attitude to the theme”), which were studied using the polygraphic complex; as well as indicators of the quality of life of the subjects. It was found that (in addition to an increased level of relevant psychopathological symptoms) markers of depressive disorders are: significantly longer response time (than in healthy people) to statements / questions of common used psycho-diagnostic tools - 1.12-2.36 times (0.00001<p<0.02043), and also the increased value of the integral indicator of involuntary psychophysiological reactions “Attitude to the topic” - by 0.39–0.84 points (0.00001<p <0.03395) with an amplitude of ± 1 point (depending on the tool and stage of treatment). It was shown that the channel of mental chronometry (response time) is most sensitive to residual depressive symptoms, and the most informative tools for an objective chronometric assessment of the effectiveness of treatment of this category of patients are Zung scales and HADS (in their computer versions with the function of estimating the respondent's response time to each question / statement). It has been proved that the optimal version of the method of objective assessment of the effectiveness of therapy for patients with depression is a computer version of the Zung scale with an assessment of the response time of responder to each question / statement of this scale. It is this research option that has the highest diagnostic properties (sensitivity - 86.60%, specificity - 96.88% and faultlessness - 90.68%), which, along with ease of implementation, makes it quite suitable for practical use.