Executive dysfunction and memory in older patients with major and minor depression.

Full Abstract

Executive function, known to be impaired during late-life depression, is dependent on frontostriatal pathways. Memory is also frequently observed to be impaired among late-life depressed patients, so we assessed the possibility that executive function mediates the learning and recall deficit as a "downstream" effect of the frontostriatal compromise in executive function. A cross-sectional sample of minor and major depressed patients (N=95) and nondepressed volunteers (N=71), screened for other Axis I disorders, dementia, medical comorbidity, and severity of depression, completed a neuropsychological battery that included the California Verbal Learning Test and other tests selected for convergent and divergent validity testing. Depressed patients differed from controls on learning the word list and on verbal and nonverbal executive tasks. Executive function was a mediator for depressed patients verbal learning scores (z=-2.67, p=.01). A nonverbal executive score also mediated verbal learning (z=-2.18, p=.03) indicating convergent validity of executive dysfunction during verbal learning exercises. In conclusion, the verbal memory deficits typically attributed to late-life depression may result from impaired executive functioning during the learning phase of the recall task.

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Author information

Author/s: Elderkin-Thompson, Virginia (V); Mintz, Jim (J); Haroon, Ebrahim (E); Lavretsky, Helen (H); Kumar, Anand (A);

Affiliation: UCLA Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Geriatric Division, CA 90024-1759, USA. velderkin(-atsign-)mednet.ucla.edu

Grants: K02 MH02043 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS) ; K23 MH01948 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS) ; M01 RR00865 (Agency:NCRR NIH HHS) ; R01 MH61567 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists (Arch Clin Neuropsychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Oct; vol 21 (issue 7) : pp 669-76

Dates: Created 2006/10/30; Completed 2007/01/03; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 16908116, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

ErratumIn: Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2007 Feb;22(2):259.

RepublishedIn: Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2007 Feb;22(2):261-70. (PMID: 17443924)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Age of Onset
Aged
Analysis of Variance
Case-Control Studies
Chi-Square Distribution
Depression - classification; physiopathology
Female
Humans

Learning Disorders - physiopathology
Male
Memory - physiology
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests
Problem Solving - physiology
Severity of Illness Index
Verbal Learning - physiology

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