Department of Medical Psychology, Chair of Psychiatry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland.
Department of Internal Medicine and Gerontology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
Psychol Health Med. 2022 Jul;27(6):1227-1233. doi: 10.1080/13548506.2020.1859563. Epub 2020 Dec 22.
Nowadays there are numerous studies on the occurrence of cognitive dysfunction in late-life depression (LLD). The role of executive dysfunctions in the psychopathology of depression is particularly emphasized and needs further examination. The aim was to assess cognitive functions and their relation to depressive symptoms in elders with LLD, previously depressed, and patients without the history of depressive episodes. The study consisted of 824 older adults who underwent a neuropsychological evaluation (97 currently depressed, 114 previously depressed and 613 patients without the history of depressive episodes). LLD patients performed poorer in ACE-III and AVLT and poorer in TMT-B than those previously depressed and never depressed. The LLD group also performed significantly poorer than the previously depressed on Digit Span Forward. Results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that performance on measures of executive functioning was associated with depression severity in LLD (β =.227, P =.024). The results of this study suggest that executive functions are the most impaired in the elderly with LLD. Furthermore, there is a relationship between executive dysfunction and the severity of depression in LLD. Executive dysfunction appears to be the core neurocognitive deficit in LLD.
如今，有大量研究关注老年期抑郁症（LLD）患者认知功能障碍的发生。尤其强调了执行功能障碍在抑郁症发病机制中的作用，需要进一步研究。本研究旨在评估认知功能及其与老年期抑郁症患者（既往抑郁和无抑郁发作史）抑郁症状的关系。该研究纳入了 824 名接受神经心理学评估的老年人（97 名目前处于抑郁状态，114 名既往抑郁，613 名无抑郁发作史）。LLD 患者在 ACE-III 和 AVLT 上的表现以及在 TMT-B 上的表现均差于既往抑郁和无抑郁发作史的患者。LLD 组在数字跨度向前测验上的表现也明显差于既往抑郁组。多元回归分析的结果表明，执行功能测试的表现与 LLD 患者的抑郁严重程度相关（β=.227，P=.024）。本研究结果表明，执行功能在 LLD 老年患者中受损最严重。此外，在 LLD 中，执行功能障碍与抑郁严重程度之间存在相关性。执行功能障碍似乎是 LLD 的核心神经认知缺陷。
