Clinical, Functional, and Biological Correlates of Cognitive Dimensions in Major Depressive Disorder – Rationale, Design, and Characteristics of the Cognitive Function and Mood Study (CoFaM-Study)

Abstract

Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies exploring clinical, functional, and biological correlates of major depressive disorder are frequent. In this type of research, depression is most commonly defined as a categorical diagnosis based on studies using diagnostic instruments. Given the phenotypic and biological heterogeneity of depression, we chose to focus the phenotypic assessments on three cognitive dimensions of depression including (a) cognitive performance, (b) emotion processing, and (c) social cognitive functioning. Hence, the overall aim of the study is to investigate the long-term clinical course of these cognitive dimensions in depression and its functional (psychosocial) correlates. We also aim to identify biological “genomic” correlates of these three cognitive dimensions of depression. To address the above overall aim, we created the Cognition and Mood Study (CoFaMS) with the key objective to investigate the clinical, functional, and biological correlates of cognitive dimensions of depression by employing a prospective study design and including a healthy control group. The study commenced in April 2015, including patients with a primary diagnosis of a major depressive episode of major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder according to DSM-IV-TR criteria. The assessments cover the three cognitive dimensions of depression (cognitive performance, emotion processing, and social cognition), cognitive function screening instrument, plus functional scales to assess general, work place, and psychosocial function, depression symptom scales, and clinical course of illness. Blood is collected for comprehensive genomic discovery analyses of biological correlates of cognitive dimensions of depression. The CoFaM-Study represents an innovative approach focusing on cognitive dimensions of depression and its functional and biological “genomic” correlates. The CoFaMS team welcomes collaborations with both national and international researchers.

Social cognitive abilities predict psychosocial dysfunction in major depressive disorder

“…It is possible that psychosocial functioning in acutely depressed patients is influenced to a greater degree by deficits in cold cognition, as cognitive deficits are greater during the acute stage of illness (Hasselbalch et al., ; McCall & Dunn, ; Rock, Roiser, Riedel, & Blackwell, ). Emerging research is consistent with this explanation, as cold cognitive deficits (e.g., executive functioning, memory) are associated with psychosocial issues (Baune & Air, ; Knight & Baune, , ; McCall & Dunn, ; Rock et al., ), and may therefore override the effect of social cognition in currently depressed patients. Further research is needed to evaluate the role of other social cognitive factors (e.g., theory of mind) in currently depressed individuals (Hasselbalch et al., ).…”

“…Data were obtained from the Cognitive Function and Mood Study (CoFaMS) (Baune & Air, ), a cross‐sectional analysis of cognition, mood, social cognition, and psychosocial functioning in persons with MDD. Participants with a current episode or previous diagnosis of depression following diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders‐fourth edition (Text Revision) criteria (American Psychiatric Association, ) were included.…”

Whole-genome single nucleotide variant distribution on genomic regions and its relationship to major depression

“…Those 10 participants, including 5 MDD cases and 5 healthy controls, gave written informed consent and were recruited under the protocol of Characteristics of the Cognitive Function and Mood Study (CoFaM-Study) conducted by the Discipline of Psychiatry, University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia (Baune and Air, 2016). The MDD diagnoses were made using Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) for both the cases and the healthy controls.…”

Genetic clustering of depressed patients and normal controls based on single-nucleotide variant proportion

“…Australian of European-ancestry in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia (Baune and Air, 2016). The Mexican-American sample included 15 subjects (10 MDD patients and 5 healthy controls, sequenced by Illumina HiSeq 2000 at BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China), and the Australian sample consisted of 10 subjects (5 MDD patients and 5 healthy controls, sequenced by Illumina HiSeq X at Garvan Institute, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia).…”