This study tested the degree to which naturalistically observed sighing in daily life is a behavioral indicator of depression and reported physical symptoms (i.e., experienced pain and flare days) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.
Thirteen RA patients wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an observational ambulatory assessment tool, for two weekends (Friday through Sunday) approximately one month apart. The EAR periodically recorded snippets of ambient sounds from participants' momentary environments (50 s every 18 min). Sighs were coded from the sampled ambient sounds.
Depression was assessed with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory. Pain during the past month was assessed with a 10-cm visual-analog scale, and number of flare days during the prior 6 months was reported.
Sighing was significantly and strongly related to patients' levels of depression and nonsignificantly and less strongly related to their reported pain and number of flare days.
The findings suggest that sighing can serve as an observable marker of depression in RA patients. Because the sample size was small, the findings should be considered preliminary.