Experimental assessment of antidepressant drug effects by spectral voice analysis

Abstract

Using 23 healthy male student volunteers, the effects of imipramine (single dose of 100 mg orally) and lofepramine (single dose of 140 mg orally) in comparison to placebo (double blind) on F0 and energy distribution in the spectrum of the voice were examined. All subjects received the three drugs in a completely counterbalanced sequence. Subjects read a standard text at three different time points after administration of the drug. An excerpt of approximately 24 sec for each reading (a total of approximately 112 h) was subjected to digital speech analysis to obtain F0 and long-term voice spectra. Analysis of variance yielded main effects for drug and interaction effects with both time period elapsed and personality. The drugs lead to a higher proportion of energy in the region below 500 Hz and affect F0 as a function of time elapsed. Further results and acoustic-phonetic implications are discussed.