The Value of Patient-administered Depression Rating Scale in Detecting Cognitive Deficits in Depressed Patients

BACKGROUND: The aims of this study was to clarify how accurate the depressed patients perceive their cognitive symptoms, and verify the appropriateness of the depressive rating scales in evaluating cognitive deficits in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients. METHODS: The subjects consisted of 19 well-characterized medication-free patients with MDD and 19 healthy volunteers. The clinical and neuropsychological assessments, including Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D), Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire (TDQ), Finger Tapping Test, Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised, Stroop Color-Word Test, and Continuous Performance Test, were administered at the time of recruitment and repeated six months after treatment. RESULTS: Depressed patients exhibited significant impairment in several neurocognitive domains. Neurocognitive impairment was correlated with both the affective and somatic factors, but not with the cognitive factors of TDQ. The similar results were shown after 6-month treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the MDD patients do not perceive their cognitive dysfunction correctly. The depression rating scales, especially the patient-administered scale, need to be validated for measuring neurocognitive deficits of MDD patients in the future, if cognitive component is suspected as one of the major domains of self-rating scale. KEYWORDS: Major depressive disorder; Cognitive deficits; Depression rating scale