Cognition and white matter hyperintensities in older depressed patients

Autor: Nancy Berman, Bruce L. Miller, C M Mehringer, Marcy Wohl, Kyle B. Boone, Ira M. Lesser
Rok vydání: 1996
Předmět:
Zdroj: American Journal of Psychiatry. 153:1280-1287
ISSN: 1535-7228
0002-953X
DOI: 10.1176/ajp.153.10.1280
Popis: Objective: The authors compared amounts ofwhite matter hyperintensity in late- and earlyonset depressed patients and never-depressed older subjects, compared neuropsychological f unction in these groups, and investigated the association between white matter hyperintensities and cognitive function in depression. Method: Sixty currently depressed patients whose f irst depression occurred after age 50 years, 35 depressed patients over age 50 whose first depression occurred before age 35, and 1 65 nonpsychiatrically ill subjects over age 50 underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychological evaluation. Areas of white matter hyperintensity were measured from MRI images. Results: The late-onset patients had more white matter hyperintensity than either of the other groups. Compared to the nondepressed subjects, the patients had significantly lower scores in the cognitive domains of nonverbal intelligence, nonverbal memory, constructional ability, executive ability, and information processing speed. The cognitive abnormalities were mostly confined to the late-onset patients, and the presence of a large amount of white matter hyperintensity was associated with significantly poorer executive skills. However, most ofthe scores were not in the significantly impaired range. Conclusions: Large amounts of white matter hyperintensity are more f requent in patients with late-onset depression than in elderly subjects with early-onset or no depression. Both late- and early-onset elderly depressed patients show mild decrements in some “right hemisphere “ cognitive skills; the late-onset subjects also show deterioration in in formation processing speed and executive functions. Patients with large amounts ofwhite matter hyperintensity have significantly poorer executive function. (AmJ Psychiatry 1996; 153:1280-1287)
Databáze: OpenAIRE