Neurocognitive functioning impairment in patients with moderate to severe late-onset depression / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the damaging traits of cognitive function in late-onset depression.Methods:In this cross-sectional study,30 elderly out-and in-patients whose first onset of major depression occurred at 60 years of age and older were included as the case group,and 30 age-and gender-matched normal elderly people were included as the controls.The diagnoses of moderate to severe depressive episode or recurrent depression were made according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems,Tenth Revision (ICD-10) diagnostic criteria.The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST),Stroop Test and Verbal Fluency Test (VFT) were used to assess attentional set shifting,attentional inhibition and working memory.The severity of depression was evaluated with the Hamilton Depression Scale-17(HAMD-17).Results:The performance scores of errors,perseverative responses,perseverative errors,percent of perseverative errors in the WCST were significantly higher in the patient group then in the control group[(61 ± 23) vs.(41 ± 25),(44 ± 27) vs.(27± 19),(36 ± 20) vs.(23 ± 16),(28 ± 15) vs.(19 ± 11),P ＜ 0.01].The scores of conceptual level responses [(36±24) vs.(54 ±26)],the correct scores of consistent group in Stroop test[(19 ±3) vs.(20 ±2)] and the scores of VFT in WCST[(10 ±2) vs.(11 ±2)] were lower in the patient group than in the control group (Ps ＜0.01).The scores of perseverative responses in the WCST were positively correlated with retardation factor scores(r =0.38,P ＜ 0.05).The correct scores of consistent group in the Stroop test were negatively correlated with retardation factor scores(r =-0.41,P ＜ 0.05).The scores of VFT were negatively correlated with retardation factor scores(r =-0.52,P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion:There may be impairment of cognitive function in late-onset depression,especially severe executive dysfunction.