The effect of antidepressant treatment on the working memory of Parkinson's disease patients with depression / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the impaired characteristics of working memory in Parkinson's disease patients with depression and the recovery status of working memory after antidepressant treatment.methods Totally 60 cases were enrolled in this study and divided into three groups30 Parkinson's disease patients with depression (PD-D),15 Parkinson's disease patients without depression (PD) and 15 persons without Parkinson's disease as normal controls.All subjects were evaluated with Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-R) audio-visual span,Tower of Hanoi (TOH) and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST).30 PD-D patients were randomly divided into two subgroupsroutine treatment subgroup (8 weeks levodopa therapy) and antidepressant combined treatment subgroup (8 weeks levodopa + citalopram therapy).The evaluation of Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD),WMS-R audio-visual span,TOH and WCST were performed on these two groups before and after treatment.Result s① There were significant differences comparing PD-D and PD groups with the normal control group in scores of WMS-R,TOH and WCST indicators (P<0.05).There were significant differences in WMS-R visual span,accuracy rate and speed of TOH,as well as the percent errors and percent perseverative responses of WCST comparing PD-D group(11.88±5.91,0.420±0.345,0.408±0.334,0.882±0.253,0.565±0.229) with PD group (15.87±5.21,0.768±0.167,0.634±0.232,0.493±0.161,0.327±0.122) (P<0.05).② Before and after treatment in PD-D routine treatment subgroup,there were significant differences in digital memory and audio-visual memory of WMS-R((6.73±3.72,5.95±3.13) vs (3.77±2.16,1.91±1.58)),accuracy rate of TOH(0.45±0.26 vs 0.23±0.13),as well as percent errors((-0.58±0.17) vs (-0.37±0.14)),percent perseverative responses((-0.32±0.15) vs (-0.14±0.09)),percent conceptual level responses(0.38±0.09 vs 0.13±0.07) and number of categories completed(3.27±1.56 vs 1.06±0.91) of WCST(P<0.05).③ After 4-week treatment and 8-week treatment,there were significant differences in HAMD score comparing PD-D antidepressant combined treatment group(16.33±2.72,10.27±2.66) with PD-D routine treatment group(21.73±2.28,18.4±2.47) (P<0.05).Conclusion Comparing Parkinson's disease patients without depression,the impaired working memory is more serious and extensive in Parkinson's disease patients with depression.Antidepressant treatment can improve the working memory of Parkinson's disease patients with depression.