Gait characteristics in patients with major depression performing cognitive and motor tasks while walking

Abstract Depressed patients demonstrate alterations in motor and cognitive functioning that can affect their adjustments to the variations in everyday life environment. The objective was to explore gait parameters and variability of patients with major depressive disorder in dual task walking situations. Eight patients and 20 healthy controls performed motor, mental and combined motor+mental tasks while walking. Calculated parameters were cycle time, stride length, swing time, double support time and their coefficients of variation (CV). Patients demonstrated greater gait variability (swing time CV) than controls during baseline walk ( t (26)=2.64, p