Journal of Korean Geriatric Psychiatry

노인정신의학

pISSN 1226-6329 / eISSN 2733-4600


노인정신의학

대한노인정신의학회 (22권2호 76-83)

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

노인성 우울증 환자와 정상 노인에서 인지기능의 비교 및 우울증 증상 변화와의 관련성 평가

김혜원(Hye won Kim);최관우(Kwan Woo Choi);나은진(Eun Jin Na);이한경(Han Kyeong Lee);전홍진(Hong Jin Jeon)

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.

Keywords

Late-life depression,Neuropsychological assessment,Cognition