Tsourtos G, Thompson J C, Stough C
Department of Psychiatry, University of Adelaide, South Australia.
Psychol Med. 2002 Feb;32(2):259-65. doi: 10.1017/s0033291701005001.
Slowing of the speed of information processing has been reported in geriatric depression, but it is not clear if the impairment is present in younger patients, if motor retardation is responsible, or if antidepressant medications play a role.
Twenty unmedicated unipolar depressed inpatients were compared with 19 medicated depressed in-patients and 20 age-, sex- and verbal IQ-matched controls on inspection time (IT), a measure of speed of information processing that does not require a speeded motor response. We also examined the relationship between IT and current mood and length of depressive illness.
Unmedicated depressed patients showed slowing of information processing speed when compared to both medicated depressed patients and controls. The latter two groups were not significantly different from each other. Slowing of IT was not associated with current mood, but was negatively correlated with length of illness since first episode. No differences in IT were found between patients receiving medication with anticholinergic effects and patients receiving medication with no anticholinergic effects.
The findings indicate that unipolar depression is associated with a slowing of speed of information processing in younger patients who have not received antidepressant medication. This does not appear to be a result of motor slowing.
已有报道称老年抑郁症患者存在信息处理速度减慢的情况，但尚不清楚这种损害是否存在于年轻患者中，是否由运动迟缓所致，抑或抗抑郁药物是否起作用。
将20名未服用药物的单相抑郁住院患者与19名服用药物的抑郁住院患者以及20名年龄、性别和言语智商相匹配的对照组进行检查时间（IT）的比较，检查时间是一种衡量信息处理速度的指标，不需要快速的运动反应。我们还研究了检查时间与当前情绪以及抑郁病程之间的关系。
与服用药物的抑郁患者和对照组相比，未服用药物的抑郁患者表现出信息处理速度减慢。后两组之间无显著差异。检查时间的减慢与当前情绪无关，但与首发以来的病程呈负相关。在接受具有抗胆碱能作用药物治疗的患者和接受无抗胆碱能作用药物治疗的患者之间，检查时间未发现差异。
研究结果表明，单相抑郁症与未接受抗抑郁药物治疗的年轻患者的信息处理速度减慢有关。这似乎不是运动减慢的结果。
