Differential effects of faces and words in cognitive control in older adults with and without major depressive disorder: An emotional Stroop task study.

Aging and major depressive disorders have been associated with impaired cognitive control. These deficits are also influenced by the affective valence and by the type of stimulus processed. Using an emotional Stroop task, the current study aims to examine cognitive control deficits and their association with emotion regulation in depression and the influence of the type of stimulus (words and faces) in this association. A total of 26 older patients with a major depressive disorder (MDD) (19 women; age range: 65-84 years) and 26 older healthy controls (18 women; age range: 65-80 years) participated in the study. The results showed that MDD individuals presented greater Stroop effects than their healthy controls and an absence of the conflict adaptation effect defined as a reduction of the influence of irrelevant stimulus dimensions after incongruent trials. Additionally, our results also showed that the processing of emotional words in depressed participants is more automatic than the processing of emotional faces. These findings suggest that older depressed individuals have greater difficulty in recognizing affective facial expressions than older healthy controls, while the over-learned behavior of word reading greatly reduces differences in the performance of the emotional Stroop task between groups (MDD and healthy controls).

Effectiveness of instrumental reminiscence intervention on improving coping in healthy older adults.

Reminiscence is a psychological intervention that uses the recall of past events, feelings, and thoughts to facilitate pleasure, quality of life, and adjustment to present life. The main goal of this study was to investigate the effect of a reminiscence intervention programme on coping strategies. One hundred fifty healthy older adults attended the reminiscence sessions. In order to evaluate the effects of the programme and find out if its effects lasted over time, we used an experimental design with pretest, posttest, and follow-up assessments, comparing a control group to the intervention group. Repeated-measures analysis of variance showed significant differences in problem-solving coping, positive reappraisal, social support seeking, and avoidance coping with the treatment group obtaining higher scores than the control group in all cases. The effects declined after 3 months, but some differences were found in the treatment group obtaining higher scores in problem-solving coping and positive reappraisal and lower in overt emotional expression. The study suggests that reminiscence therapy contributes to mental health by enhancing coping strategies that can allow the elderly to cope successfully and overcome psychological distress.

Measuring elderly people's quality of life through the Beck Hopelessness Scale: a study with a Spanish sample.

OBJECTIVES: Hopelessness is a key element of suicidal intent. It can instill a pessimistic outlook on the future, leading an individual to believe that suicide is the only answer to their problems. Hopelessness operates as a modulating variable between depression and suicidal behavior. The aim of this study was to confirm the factor structure of the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) in a non-clinical sample. METHOD: Three hundred and sixty-two Spanish individuals, aged over 60, free of cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms, completed the BHS scale. Participants were tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), using one-, two- and three-factor models. RESULTS: The one- and two-factor models presented adequate fit indices. Specifically, the indices of the two-factor models were better than those of the one-factor model. The two-factor model, without items 4, 9 and 14, provided the best fit, given that the indices obtained in the CFA and their internal consistency were better than those of the other models. CONCLUSION: The validation of the BHS for a population of Spanish older adults provides a reliable and valid measure of hopelessness and could be useful in clinical practice and research as an effective tool for the early detection of suicidal behaviors.

Can there be learning potential in Parkinson's disease? A comparison with healthy older adults.

Patients with Parkinson's disease may show certain cognitive impairments, although it is unclear how these deficits can affect their learning potential. The study aims to use the testing-the-limits technique to compare the potential for cognitive plasticity in a group of Patients with Parkinson's disease (N = 33) and a group of healthy older adults (N = 33). Sixty-six participants performed verbal learning test to analyze the learning potential. Repeated-measures analysis of variance showed significant main effects of time, group, and the interaction. There is a lower learning potential in subjects with Parkinson's disease; however, those still maintain a certain capacity for learning and, therefore, for cognitive plasticity.