Tam C W C, Lam L C W
Department of Psychiatry, North District Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, China.
East Asian Arch Psychiatry. 2012 Mar;22(1):25-30.
OBJECTIVES. To investigate cognitive and functional impairment in Chinese elderly subjects with late-onset depression. METHODS. Subjects with late-onset depression and who were clinically non-demented were recruited. Their cognitive and functional scores were compared with those of cognitively normal elderly controls and elderly persons with mild cognitive impairment. Functional ability was assessed by the Disability Assessment for Dementia score. Various cognitive domains were assessed including global cognitive function, delayed episodic memory, working memory, and categorical verbal fluency test. RESULTS. A total of 105 depressed subjects and 324 non-depressed controls (149 normal elderly controls and 175 with mild cognitive impairment) were recruited. The depression group had significantly poorer performance in all cognitive assessments compared to the normal elderly control group. The depression group had a similar cognitive profile to those with mild cognitive impairment, except that its subjects had slightly better performance in the Categorical Verbal Fluency Test, delayed recall testing, and the Chinese version of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive subscale test. Depressed subjects had significantly lower functional scores in instrumental activities of daily living than the non-depressed, normal elderly controls, and those with mild cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS. Our results demonstrate that Chinese elderly with late-onset depression had cognitive impairments in multiple domains similar to those encountered in the age- and sex-matched non-depressed controls with mild cognitive impairment. However, their functional performance was significantly poorer than that in these controls. This study provided extensive characterisation of the range and depth of cognitive and functional impairments in elderly patients with late-onset depression.
目的。研究中国老年晚发性抑郁症患者的认知和功能损害情况。方法。招募临床无痴呆的老年晚发性抑郁症患者。将他们的认知和功能评分与认知正常的老年对照组以及轻度认知障碍老年人的评分进行比较。通过痴呆症残疾评估得分评估功能能力。评估多个认知领域，包括整体认知功能、延迟情景记忆、工作记忆和分类言语流畅性测试。结果。共招募了105名抑郁症患者和324名非抑郁症对照组（149名正常老年对照组和175名轻度认知障碍患者）。与正常老年对照组相比，抑郁症组在所有认知评估中的表现明显更差。抑郁症组的认知特征与轻度认知障碍患者相似，只是其受试者在分类言语流畅性测试、延迟回忆测试和中文版阿尔茨海默病评估量表 - 认知分量表测试中的表现略好。抑郁症患者在日常生活工具性活动中的功能得分明显低于非抑郁症、正常老年对照组和轻度认知障碍患者。结论。我们的结果表明，中国老年晚发性抑郁症患者在多个领域存在认知障碍，类似于年龄和性别匹配的轻度认知障碍非抑郁症对照组。然而，他们的功能表现明显比这些对照组差。本研究对老年晚发性抑郁症患者认知和功能损害的范围及深度进行了广泛描述。
