The effects of the age onset on cognitive function in late life depression / 中国神经精神疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the cognitive characteristics and vascular risk factor between early onset de?pression and late onset depression in late life depression and provide a clue to elucidate the cause of cognitive impairment in late life depression. Method Fifty-six late life depression patients were recruited in our hospital, including 29 early on?set depression patients and 27 late onset depression patients. 25 controls were recruited from Guangzhou community. Cog?nitive evaluation were conducted in all the patients and controls, including MMSE, memory, attention, language, visuospa?tial abilities,executive function and Framingham vascular risk assessment, and analyze the cognitive and vascular risk be?tween the patients. Result There were statistically significant differences in overall cognitive assessment MMSE(24.8 ± 2.9,22.8±3.5,P=0.030), symbol digit modalities test(SDMT)(29.8±10.5, 22.9±11.8, P=0.028), clock drawing test(CDT) (3.6 ± 0.8, 2.9 ± 1.3, P=0.006) and trail making test(TMT) (60.4 ± 20.6, 74.7 ± 28.8, P=0.027) between late onset depression and early onset depression. In addition, the score of vascular risk assessment was significant between late onset depression and early onset depression(14.6±2.7,12.3±2.2,P=0.001). Conclusion Compare with early onset depression, late onset de?pression has much severe cognitive impairments and increased vascular risk factors.