Actigraphy: a valuable diagnostic tool or a luxury investigation? (Neuropsychiatric aspects).
OBJECTIVE
Despite of the continuing interest in actigraphy it has a relatively low impact on the everyday medical routine. Accordingly, we set out to review the current state and to recommend relevant further indications for its application, especially in neuropsychiatry.


METHODS
We surveyed the areas of its use and then reviewed the literature, with special regard to its advantages and methodological limitations. Adding to the results we enlarged the results with our own personal experience.


RESULTS
The limitations of the method may be decreased by methodological manipulations (a simple rational data reduction is recommended). Actigraphy appears to be a useful tool in the diagnosis of illnesses, syndromes or disorders influencing the vigilance level, the motor performance or the energetic balance of the organism. We constructed a list of the most relevant fields of indication of actigraphy in diagnostics, illustrated by anecdotal actigraphic case records.


CONCLUSIONS
Further methodological considerations are needed for the successful evaluation of accelerometry. Targeted basic epidemiological studies in the healthy population and in patient groups should solve various open questions in order to make full use of the advantages of actigraphy in the everyday clinical routine.
Rajna
Péter
P
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Semmelweis University, Budapest. rajna@multiart.hu
Szomszéd
Anita
A
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D009043:Motor Activity; D009069:Movement Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D017286:Polysomnography; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014851:Wakefulness