Cognitive deficits in major depression

Abstract

Major depression is a mood disorder that is often accompanied by the impairment of cognitive functions. Although suggestive, the large range of existing neuropsychological, neuropsychiatric, and, lately, neuroimaging investigations have not yet given a consistent picture of the psychological and biological disturbances involved in this psychiatric disorder. The present study of the cognitive functions in depression was part of an extensive investigation, including neuropsychological testing, psychiatric examination, and neuroimaging. A representative sample of 40 severely depressed hospitalized patients and a group of 49 closely matched control subjects were tested with an extensive neuropsychological test battery. Results, corrected for various confounding factors, confirmed the current notion that depressed patients suffer from wide-spread cognitive impairments. The group analysis did not allow any hypothesis on a possible pattern to the dysfunctions, but heterogeneity in the test performances calls for further analysis of the data in patient subgroups in relation to neuroimaging results.

Consensus paper of the WFSBP Task Force on Biological Markers: Biological Markers in Depression

“…Several studies have reported that depressed patients are impaired on verbal fluency tasks (Landro et al 2001;Moritz et al 2002;Ravnkilde et al 2002), Trail Making Tests (Austin et al 1999;Grant et al 2001;Moritz et al 2002), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (Ilonen et al 2000;Grant et al 2001;Moritz et al 2002), and on the Tower of London task (Beats et al 1996;Elliott et al 1996). There is, however, some inconsistency, the deficit appearing only in endogenous cases in some studies (Austin et al 1999;Rogers et al 2004), while other authors failed to evidence executive functioning deficits in major depression regardless of the severity (Ravnkilde et al 2002). These discrepancies may reflect a number of methodological issues, including variation in diagnostic criteria, test selection and strategies used to perform this task.…”

Putative Tests of Frontal Lobe Function: A PET-Study of Brain Activation During Stroop's Test and Verbal Fluency

“…Forty-six normal volunteers, mean age 41 AE 11X6 years (range 21±65 years, 16 males/30 females), participated in the study as part of a larger study dealing with affective disorders (Ravnkilde et al, 2001;Videbech et al, 2001aVidebech et al, , 2001bVidebech et al, , 2001c. The subjects were recruited by newspaper advertisement and had an average of 12X4 AE 2X4 years of education.…”

Comorbidity of anxiety disorders in major depressive disorder: A clinical trial to evaluate neuropsychological deficit

“…Patients with MDD often present deficits in verbal fluency tests 17,18 , set shifting 10,19,20 , planning 21,22 , and automated response inhibition 10,17,22 . These functions are controlled by the prefrontal cortex and the circuits that some of its different parts establish with the thalamus and the basal ganglia 22,23 .…”