Neuropsychological deficits in elderly with depression

BACKGROUND: Depressed patients are preoccupied with unhappy thoughts which reduce their capacity to focus on attention, memory, and other cognitive performance. AIM: The aim of this study is to assess neuropsychological deficits in elderly depressive and compare it with matched normal controls. METHODS: After consideration of inclusion and exclusion criteria, the sample of 30 elderly depressive patients diagnosed on the basis of International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition criteria and 30 normal controls were selected. The selection of sample was by purposive sampling from private psychiatric clinic of Bhopal. The age range of sample was 60 years and above. All participants were administered the Geriatric Depression Scale, and the Luria–Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-1 (LNNB form-1). RESULTS: On the Geriatric Depression Scale, 21 patients were at mild level and nine patients were at severe level of depression. None of the normal controls were depressed. On LNNB form-1, depressive patients showed significant elevation on receptive speech, arithmetic, memory, reading, writing, and expressive speech as compared to normal controls. CONCLUSION: Older depressive patients showed significantly more neurocognitive deficits as compared to normal controls. It is important that these deficits are identified and addressed for the holistic treatment of late-onset depression.