Dynamic walking predicts a rise in mood

A dynamic way of walking predicts improvements in mood. This is the result of a study by Prof Dr Johannes Michalak from Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H) and Dr Dirk Adolph from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), which has now been published in the journal Cognitive Therapy and Research.

For Prof Dr Johannes Michalak from the UW/H, the study funded by the German Research Foundation is important for the field of depression research in two respects: "Until now, we have only ever investigated gait patterns in the laboratory, but now we have also been able to find differences in gait patterns between depressed people and healthy subjects in everyday life. What's more, gait patterns can be used to predict how mood will develop in the near future. We hope that we can also use these findings to develop new treatment options for depressed patients," he explains the background to the experiments.

Clear link between depression and gait becomes apparent

The researchers recorded gait and mood over two days using portable measuring devices and compared a sample of 35 acutely depressed patients with a sample of 36 healthy people. Compared to the healthy individuals, the depressed people walked more slowly, with a more stooped posture and less dynamic up and down movements of the body.

In addition, it was found that the type of walking could predict mood in both the depressed and the healthy subjects: If people had walked faster and more dynamically within an hour, there was an improvement in positive mood during this period. However, no effects of the gait pattern on the negative mood could be observed. "But we only investigated the short-term effects of the gait pattern," explains Prof Michalak.

"These findings fit in well with the results of many laboratory studies, which have again shown that posture and movement patterns have an effect on mood. These findings could also be the starting point for developing new forms of treatment for depression that help depressed people to change their posture and movement patterns. However, further studies are needed to check whether such treatments can really contribute to a long-term reduction in depressive symptoms," says Dr Adolph.

The study can be found in the journal Cognitive Therapy and Research:

Adolph, D., Tschacher, W., Niemeyer, H. & Michalak, J. (2021). Gait patterns and mood in everyday life: A comparison between depressed patients and non-depressed controls. doi.org/10.1007/s10608-021-10215-7