J Korean Geriatr Psychiatry.  2018 Oct;22(2):76-83. 10.0000/jkgp.2018.22.2.76.

Comparisons of Neurocognitive Functions in Patients with Late-Life Depression versus Normal Elderly, and Association with Changes of Depressive Symptoms in a 3-Month Follow-Up

• Kim H
• Choi KW
• Na EJ
• Lee HK
• Jeon HJ

• KMID: 2435025
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.0000/jkgp.2018.22.2.76

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to investigate the neurocognitive functions of patients with late-life depression compared to healthy controls and their association with improvement of depressive symptoms.
METHODS
We compared the results of neurocognitive tests between 41 patients with late-life depression and 20 healthy controls at baseline and 3 months later prospectively. And then we investigated the association of change of cognitive function and improvement of depressive symptoms in patients with late-life depression.
RESULTS
Patients with late-life depression showed significantly impaired results in neurocognitive tests especially in domains of language, memory and frontal executive function compared to healthy control. However, after 3 months of treatment of depression, there was no association between the change of results of neurocognitive tests and the changes of scores of Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D).
CONCLUSION
Impairment of cognitive functions in late-life depression includes the domains of language, memory and executive function and after 3 months of treatment of depression, there was no association of improvement of depressive symptom and cognitive change in patients with late-life depression.

Keyword

Late-life depression; Neuropsychological assessment; Cognition

MeSH Terms

Aged*
Cognition
Depression*
Executive Function
Follow-Up Studies*
Humans
Memory
Prospective Studies