Neuropsychological Characteristics of Mild Cognitive Impairment with Late life Depression

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The depression in the elderly often accompany with cognitive decline and the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) commonly accompany with depressive symptoms. This study was performed to compare the differences in neuropsychological characteristics between the MCI without depression and the MCI with depression. METHODS: The subjects for this study were 366 MCI patient who enrolled through 'Clinical Research Center for Dementia of South Korea (CREDOS) study' gathered between December, 2005 and February, 2011. We divided the MCI patient into non-depressed group (n=187) and depressed group (n=179), and evaluated each cognitive domain with the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery (SNSB) and analyzed the two group. RESULTS: In the depressed group compared to the non-depressed group, Korean version of Mini-mental State Examination (K-MMSE) scores were lower (p<0.05), and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (I-ADL) impairment was pronounced (p<0.05). In SNSB, the test scores of the two groups had similar levels on memory (p=0.403), language domain (p=0.098). But the test scores on attention (p<0.05), visuospatial function (p<0.05), executive function (p<0.05) domain in depression group was significantly lower than in non-depression group. CONCLUSION: This study shows differences in the clinical feature and neuropsychologic characteristics between the two different situations. MCI subjects with coexisting depression showed severer cognitive decline and had multiple cognitive domain impairment rather than single memory domain impairment.