The performances of unipolar and bipolar depressive patients and also of a control group on motor, verbal and mental components of psychomotor functioning were clinically and psychometrically evaluated and compared at a univariate and multivariate level. The groups were similar with respect to age, sex, educational level, illness onset age and depression severity. In univariate comparisons of test-based assessments of psychomotor functions the overall tendency was towards a more pronounced retardation in unipolar depressive patients compared to bipolar ones and controls, the differences being marked on some measures and relatively small on others. Multivariate analyses using scores on 20 psychomotor variables revealed a rather good discrimination of the depressive groups, 78.57% of cases being correctly classified, with 0.80 sensitivity for unipolar patients and 0.75 specificity. Clinical evaluation of spontaneous psychomotor activity did not reveal notable differences between the two depressive groups.