Discriminant Analysis of Occupational Performance Characteristics in Patients with Major Depressive Disorders and Healthy Individuals

(This study conducted a retrospective survey to compare task performance in occupational therapy between patients with MDD and healthy subjects. It investigated whether specific occupational performance characteristics can effectively distinguish MDD patients from healthy individuals.)The present study revealed that four occupational performance characteristics were extracted to discriminate between depressed patients and normal subjects. The AUC values of the ROC curves generated from the discrimination scores indicated that their discriminative ability was of very high accuracy.Specific occupational performance characteristics are effective in distinguishing MDD patients from healthy individuals and may serve as valuable indicators for screening high-risk subjects in daily life.This novel insight, centered on behaviors not typically assessed through conventional methods, offers a new avenue for evaluating MDD. Looking ahead, there is potential to extend the application of occupational performance characteristics to other mental disorders beyond MDD.