The CognitiveFunction and Depression (Part 1)

Overview

The interest of psychiatrists in using neuropsychological tests with patients suffering fromdepressive disorders has recently increased. The reason is that it has been proved for a fact thatsimilarly to neurological or schizophrenic disorders and mood disorders are associated with acertain type of cognitive defi ciency. By cognitive defi ciency we mean above all impaired memorycapacity, reduced attention, and defi cient performance functions. Cognitive defi ciency is sometimesunderstood as including some other cognitive function components such as motor and languageskills or visual perception as well. Depression is characterised by impaired episodic memory andreduced ability to learn new skills. Impaired verbal fl uency, inability to turn attention to new stimuli,slowed-down psychomotor rate and reduced working-memory capacity are the most frequentlymentioned partial cognitive function defi ciencies in depression. In the future, attention needs tobe paid to improving identifi cation and quantifi cation of cognitive defi ciency in patients sufferingfrom depression, assessing to which extent it affects patients’ daily lives. Establishing whether andto which extent individual partial parameters of cognitive functions correspond to the potentialtherapeutic response would be valuable, too.

Key words:
cognitive defi cit, depression, executive functions, memory.