Annotated by Susan Tucker Parkinson's Disease in its early stages is often misdiagnosed as Major Depression. A study was conducted using acoustic analysis of speech patterns to determine if there were detectable differences between Parkinson's and Major Depression. The study was the largest study to date and the only one to have used this age of population. The results show that there are certain detectable differences between the diseases. The rate of speech is the only variable that is consistently different between the two disorders.
Depression is associated with slowed-speech, longer pause times, and prolonged duration of vowels.
Surprisingly, it is noted that pause time is increased only during emotionally neutral passages. The rate of speech of a person with Parkinson's Disease is the same as those with normal speech. The use of acoustics may prove extremely useful in diagnosing Parkinson's Disease in its early stages since the early introduction of certain drugs is thought to drastically slow the progression of Parkinson's Disease. Although ulcerative colitis and Chrohn's Disease are similar in many ways, there also distinct differences. This article explores both the similarities and the differences between ulcerative colitis and Chrohn's Disease.