Hypoesthesia of the malleolus as a soft sign in depression

Autores de IIS La Fe

• Lorenzo Livianos Aldana

  Autor

• Elia Valls Pascual

  Autor

• 

  Ana Cristina García Blanco

  Autor

• Helena Tobella Llerena

  Autor

• Nuria Alberola Legorburo

  Autor

• Susana Garcia Aznar

  Autor

• Ramon Bellot Arcis

  Autor

• Vicente Saiz Monrabal

  Autor

• Lourdes Ros Mora

  Autor

Participantes ajenos a IIS La Fe

• Diaz-Alonso, I

Abstract

Background: Physical signs often are present in many psychiatric conditions, making up a fundamental part of them and accompanying the psychiatric manifestations themselves. Identifying minor neurological signs is especially of interest due to they are easily accessible through simple neurological examination and could be a useful if underused tool for the diagnostic process and patient therapy. Method: A group of depressed patients (a =85) and group of healthy individuals (n=101) that served as control were examined using the Wartenberg wheel, a medical device for neurological use, in order to determine the presence of hypoesthesia on both sides of their ankles. Results.: The data revealed: i) patients with depression are generally more likely to present malleolar hypoesthesia than healthy participants; and ii) participants who presented malleolar hypoesthesia presented greater depressive symptomatology as well as greater anxiety symptomatology at the time of assessment. Limitations: Although all patients in this study were taking psychotropic medication, anxiolytics and antidepressants are not associated with skin sensitivity. As is usual, the categorization of hypoesthesia is based on participant subjectivity. However, this subjectivity cannot explain the differences between depressed patients and healthy individuals. Conclusions: The present findings corroborate that localized tactile sensitivity is altered in depression and correlates with anxiety-depressive symptomatology, even on a subclinical level. The observation of neurological soft signs such as the detection of malleolar hypoesthesia in patients with depressive symptomatology is easily accessible using a simple neurological examination, and it could became a powerful tool that could provide objective information on affective disorders. (C) 2014 Elsevier By. All rights reserved,

Keywords

• Depression; Neurological soft signs; Tactile sensitivity; Hypoesthesia