Movement slowing appeared across several mental disorders
A review found movement slowing across mental disorders. Specifically among patients exhibiting this slowing, preliminary evidence suggested poorer cognitive performance than in healthy controls.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The review suggests that psychomotor slowing, meaning slowed movement or responses, may be shared across different mental disorders. Specifically among patients exhibiting psychomotor slowing, preliminary evidence suggested poorer cognitive performance compared with healthy controls. The cross-sectional studies describe differences at a point in time; they cannot establish causes or show how these difficulties develop.
The abstract does not identify the disorder subgroups or explain the effect-size scale. It describes the cognitive evidence as preliminary and gives insufficient detail to judge consistency across disorders.
Objective assessments shaped the review
Eligible studies used objective tools to assess movement or thinking in adults with mental disorders. The researchers sought to describe disturbances across disorders, whose differing manifestations had made a systematic account difficult.
The cognition result concerns a subgroup
The preliminary comparison with healthy controls specifically concerns patients who exhibited psychomotor slowing. It should not be extended to every adult with a mental disorder or interpreted as evidence that slowing causes cognitive impairment.
The original publication
Assessing Psychomotor Disturbances among Mental Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Song LY, Lyu Z, Xie JY et al.
Psychother Psychosom · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 40582347
- Record checked
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