Cognitive deficits in hospitalized and neverhospitalized remitted unipolar depressive patients

Background and Objectives: Little is known about the differences between patients managing depression on an out patient basis as compared with hospitalized ones. This study investigated the performance of attention, executive function and verbal memory during remission from unipolar depressive episodes and compare patients with and without history of hospitalization. Methods: The sample of participants who had undergone one or more hospitalizations (hospitalized, N = 46) as well as in a sample without hospitalization (never hospitalized,N = 46) and controls (N = 92) were used. The Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) and the TrailMaking Test (TMT) were administrated to test this hypothesis. Results and conclusion: The hospitalized sample had similar results in all four neuropsychological variables in comparison with the never hospitalized group, and both groups had some lower results in comparison with controls. In comparison with the controls, hospitalized sample had mean cognitive deficits of 34% (28-41%), the never hospitalized group had a mean of 20% (21-35%). Contrary to previous reports we have found no meaningful differences between the two patient groups (AU)

Cognitive deficits in the euthymic phase of unipolar depression.

Although neuropsychological deficits have been reported in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) during an acute episode, relatively little is known about the persistence of these deficits in remission. This study investigated the performance of attention, executive function and verbal memory during remission from unipolar depressive episodes. We tested the hypothesis that outpatients do not differ in cognitive variables from controls. We did this using a well-defined outpatient sample, consisting of medicated and unmedicated patients, with a history of MDD. Ninety-seven subjects with MDD in remission ranging from young to old were compared with 97 healthy control subjects. Both samples were balanced for age, gender, and education levels. The Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) and the Trail Making Test (TMT) were used. Patients with remitted MDD, in comparison with controls, were impaired on tasks of attention, executive function and verbal memory. The individual level of depressive symptoms was not related to the cognitive performance. Small- to medium-sized significant correlations exist between cognitive test variables (as represented by Trail Making B and AVLT delayed recall) and level of depressive symptomatology (as measured by MADRS or BDI-II) in the total sample, indicating that higher levels of depressive symptomatology are associated with lower cognitive function. These findings suggest deficits in attention and delayed verbal recall can serve as an indicator for MDD in outpatients.