Cargando…

Neuropsychological functioning in late-life depression

Background: The literature describing neurocognitive function in patients with late-life depression (LLD) show inconsistent findings in regard to incidence and main deficits. Reduced information processing speed is in some studies found to explain deficits in higher order cognitive function, while o...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Dybedal, Gro Strømnes, Tanum, Lars, Sundet, Kjetil, Gaarden, Torfinn Lødøen, Bjølseth, Tor Magne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3694218/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23818887
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00381
_version_ 1782274831610281984
author Dybedal, Gro Strømnes
Tanum, Lars
Sundet, Kjetil
Gaarden, Torfinn Lødøen
Bjølseth, Tor Magne
author_facet Dybedal, Gro Strømnes
Tanum, Lars
Sundet, Kjetil
Gaarden, Torfinn Lødøen
Bjølseth, Tor Magne
author_sort Dybedal, Gro Strømnes
collection PubMed
description Background: The literature describing neurocognitive function in patients with late-life depression (LLD) show inconsistent findings in regard to incidence and main deficits. Reduced information processing speed is in some studies found to explain deficits in higher order cognitive function, while other studies report specific deficits in memory and executive function. Our aim was to determine the characteristics of neuropsychological functioning in non-demented LLD patients. Methods: A comprehensive neuropsychological battery was administered to a group of hospitalized LLD patients and healthy control (HC) subjects. Thirty-nine patients without dementia, 60 years or older meeting DSM-IV criteria for current episode of major depression, and 18 non-depressed control subjects were included. The patient group was characterized by having a long lasting current depressive episode of late-onset depression and by being non-responders to treatment with antidepressants. Neurocognitive scores were calculated for the domains of information processing speed, verbal memory, visuospatial memory, executive function, and language. Number of impairments (performance below the 10th percentile of the control group per domain) for each participant was calculated. Results: Nearly half of the patients had a clinically significant cognitive impairment in at least one neurocognitive domain. Relative to HC subjects, LLD patients performed significantly poorer in the domains of information processing speed and executive function. Executive abilities were most frequently impaired in the patient group (39% of the patients). Even when controlling for differences in processing speed, patients showed more executive deficits than controls. Conclusions: Controlling for processing speed, patients still showed impaired executive function compared to HCs. Reduced executive function thus appears to be the core neurocognitive deficit in LLD. Executive function seems to be an umbrella concept for several connected but distinct cognitive functions. Further studies of neuropsychological functioning in LLD patients are needed to characterize more specific what kinds of executive impairments patients have. Additional studies of remitted LLD patients are needed to separate episode-related and persistent impairments.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3694218
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2013
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-36942182013-07-01 Neuropsychological functioning in late-life depression Dybedal, Gro Strømnes Tanum, Lars Sundet, Kjetil Gaarden, Torfinn Lødøen Bjølseth, Tor Magne Front Psychol Psychology Background: The literature describing neurocognitive function in patients with late-life depression (LLD) show inconsistent findings in regard to incidence and main deficits. Reduced information processing speed is in some studies found to explain deficits in higher order cognitive function, while other studies report specific deficits in memory and executive function. Our aim was to determine the characteristics of neuropsychological functioning in non-demented LLD patients. Methods: A comprehensive neuropsychological battery was administered to a group of hospitalized LLD patients and healthy control (HC) subjects. Thirty-nine patients without dementia, 60 years or older meeting DSM-IV criteria for current episode of major depression, and 18 non-depressed control subjects were included. The patient group was characterized by having a long lasting current depressive episode of late-onset depression and by being non-responders to treatment with antidepressants. Neurocognitive scores were calculated for the domains of information processing speed, verbal memory, visuospatial memory, executive function, and language. Number of impairments (performance below the 10th percentile of the control group per domain) for each participant was calculated. Results: Nearly half of the patients had a clinically significant cognitive impairment in at least one neurocognitive domain. Relative to HC subjects, LLD patients performed significantly poorer in the domains of information processing speed and executive function. Executive abilities were most frequently impaired in the patient group (39% of the patients). Even when controlling for differences in processing speed, patients showed more executive deficits than controls. Conclusions: Controlling for processing speed, patients still showed impaired executive function compared to HCs. Reduced executive function thus appears to be the core neurocognitive deficit in LLD. Executive function seems to be an umbrella concept for several connected but distinct cognitive functions. Further studies of neuropsychological functioning in LLD patients are needed to characterize more specific what kinds of executive impairments patients have. Additional studies of remitted LLD patients are needed to separate episode-related and persistent impairments. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-06-27 /pmc/articles/PMC3694218/ /pubmed/23818887 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00381 Text en Copyright © 2013 Dybedal, Tanum, Sundet, Gaarden and Bjølseth. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.
spellingShingle Psychology
Dybedal, Gro Strømnes
Tanum, Lars
Sundet, Kjetil
Gaarden, Torfinn Lødøen
Bjølseth, Tor Magne
Neuropsychological functioning in late-life depression
title Neuropsychological functioning in late-life depression
title_full Neuropsychological functioning in late-life depression
title_fullStr Neuropsychological functioning in late-life depression
title_full_unstemmed Neuropsychological functioning in late-life depression
title_short Neuropsychological functioning in late-life depression
title_sort neuropsychological functioning in late-life depression
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3694218/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23818887
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00381
work_keys_str_mv AT dybedalgrostrømnes neuropsychologicalfunctioninginlatelifedepression
AT tanumlars neuropsychologicalfunctioninginlatelifedepression
AT sundetkjetil neuropsychologicalfunctioninginlatelifedepression
AT gaardentorfinnlødøen neuropsychologicalfunctioninginlatelifedepression
AT bjølsethtormagne neuropsychologicalfunctioninginlatelifedepression