Our Experience withthe Cognitive Functions Investigation in Depression (Part 2)

Overview

Current psychiatric literature presents only little information on the possibilities of infl uencingcognitive defi ciency in patients suffering from depressive disorders. If any, works addressingthe issue are characterised by considerable methodological diversity and recovery is defi ned indifferent ways, different neuropsychological tests and different therapeutic approaches includingelectroconvulsion are used. In order to assess cognitive defi ciency in depression, we created a set ofneuropsychological tests. Cognitive functions of three depressive patients were examined. In thesethree patients the inhibitory form of depression was diagnosed and milnaciprane therapy started.The level of the cognitive functions under analysis as well as clinical symptoms measured on theHamilton scale for depression were evaluated prior to and after four-week antidepressant therapy.The milnacipran therapy succeeded, leading above all to an improvement of the psychomotor rateand memory functions and a trend towards an improvement of the originally defi cient higherexecutive functions was observed, too. Although the number of patients analysed does not allow usto generalise the results, they can nevertheless be regarded as supporting the idea of association ofcognitive defi ciency with depressive disorders.

Key words:
cognitive functions, cognitive defi cit, depression, neuropsychological assessment.