Depression is one of the main risk factors for suicide. However, little is known about the intricate relationships among depressive symptomatology in unipolar depression, suicide risk, and the characteristics of executive dysfunction in depressed patients. We compared 20 non-psychotic unipolar depressed suicide attempters to 20 matching depressed non-attempters and to 20 healthy controls to further investigate the possible differences in neuropsychological performance. Depressed subjects were controlled for current suicidal ideation, and their neuropsychological profile was assessed using a range of measures of executive functioning, attention, verbal memory, processing speed, and psychomotor speed. Depressed groups were outperformed by healthy controls. Depressed attempters presented more cognitive impairment than depressed non-attempters on a simple Go/No-go response inhibition task and performed better than non-attempters on the Tower of London planning task. Depressed attempters were clearly distinguished by a deficit in response inhibition (Go/No-go commission errors). The normative planning performance (Tower of London extra moves) of the suicide attempters was unexpected, and this unanticipated finding calls for further research. Normative planning may indicate an increased risk of suicidal behavior.

Alterations in executive functioning are frequent in depressive patients. One clinical characteristic of depression is difficulty and slowness in decision-making. This study aimed to compare the performance of a group of 30 non-psychotic unipolar depressed to 30 healthy controls in a version of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) from the Psychology Experiment Building Language (PEBL). Significant differences between depressed patients and healthy controls in traditional Net Score measures as well as in various alternative metrics were verified.

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Introduction: Current diagnostic criteria for depression include psychomotor retardation, being the Finger Tapping Test (FTT) as one of the most utilized instruments to assess fine psychomotor performance. Results: We found significant differences between depressed patients and healthy controls. Significant effects of age and gender were found.Conclusion: Results allowed us to identify differences in performance between the two groups, therefore this version of the FTT revealed adequate reliability values, one instrument accessible to all clinicians.