95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Movement Science
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1295848
This article is part of the Research Topic Physical Literacy for Health Throughout the Life Course View all 7 articles
Motor and cognitive function after unipolar depressive episodes: A 6-year longitudinal observational study
Provisionally accepted
Stephanie Straub 1*
Markus A. Hobert 2
Kirsten Emmert 2
Clint Hansen 2
Morad Elshehabi 2
Ulrike Sünkel 1
Isabel Wurster 1,3
Benjamin Roeben 1,3
Milan Zimmermann 3
Andreas J Fallgatter 3,4,5 Daniela Berg 2
Walter Maetzler 2- 1 Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- 2 Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kiel, Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
- 3 German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers (HZ), Bonn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- 4 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- 5 German Center for Mental Health, Center for Intervention and Research On Adaptive and Maladaptive Brain Circuits Underlying Mental Health (C-I-R-C), Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany
Introduction: Unipolar depression is a frequent psychiatric disorder and associated with cognitive and motor deficits. It is also a prodromal or risk marker for various neurodegenerative diseases. Little research has been done on the extent to which motor and cognitive deficits persist in remitted depressive episode, and to what extent these deficits can be progressive. Methods: 401 healthy subjects of the Tübingen TREND study aged between 50 and 80 years were examined over 6 years at intervals of 2 years. Of those, 81 had a positive history of unipolar depression (Dep+) and 320 had not (Dep-). We ruled out currently depressive participants. Mini-Mental-State Examination (MMSE), Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's disease (CERAD), the motor part of the Movement disorder society-revised version of the Unified Parkinson disease rating scale (MDS-UPDRS III), gait speed, and dual tasking parameters were compared between groups. Results: Dep+ had lower gait velocity than Dep-. No significant change in parameters was found over the observed time. Discussion: Reduced gait speed in Dep+ may have potential as a diagnostic and prognostic marker for Dep-if confirmed in further studies. The lack of progression of all studied parameters over 6 years specifically in Dep+ argues against a relevant potential of this approach to define prodromal neurodegenerative cohorts by history of depression. Introduction
Keywords: unipolar depression1, gait speed2, neurodegenerative disorders3, functional decline4, cognition5 MAH Conceptualization, KE formal analysis and writing -review and editing, CH Conceptualization, ME Conceptualization and supervision, US Data curation and supervision, IW data curation and Resources, BR Conceptualization and Resources, MZ Conceptualization and Resources
Received: 17 Sep 2023; Accepted: 01 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Straub, Hobert, Emmert, Hansen, Elshehabi, Sünkel, Wurster, Roeben, Zimmermann, Fallgatter, Berg and Maetzler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Stephanie Straub, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, 72076, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.