Neurocognitive profiles of patients with first-episode and recurrent depression: a cross-sectional comparative study from China

• Published in: Journal of affective disorders Vol. 286; pp. 110 - 116
• Main Authors: Lin, Jingyu, Su, Yunai, Shi, Chuan, Liu, Qi, Wang, Gang, Wei, Jing, Zhu, Gang, Chen, Qiaoling, Tian, Hongjun, Zhang, Kerang, Wang, Xueyi, Zhang, Nan, Wang, Ying, Yu, Xin, Si, Tianmei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.05.2021
• Subjects: China; Cognition; Cognitive impairment; Cross-Sectional Studies; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major - epidemiology; First-episode; Humans; Major depressive disorder; Neuropsychological Tests; Recurrent; China; First-episode; Recurrent; Major depressive disorder; Cognitive impairment
• ISSN: 0165-0327; 1573-2517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.02.068

•FED and RMD patients exhibited as overall cognitive impairment than HCs, especially for verbal and visual learning.•RMD patients exhibited worse verbal and visual learning than FED patients.•Verbal and visual learning may serve as the suitable targets for future screening assessments and interventions. Accumulating evidence has shown that cognitive deficits are prevalent among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the pattern and extent of cognitive deficits in patients with first-episode and recurrent depression remain unclear. Objective measures of cognitive function were assessed in 433 first-episode of depression (FED) patients, 206 recurrent major depression (RMD) patients during the acute phase and 287 healthy controls (HCs). Five domains of cognition (speed of processing, attention, verbal learning, visual learning and execution function) were assessed by seven neuropsychological tests. Neuropsychological data were transformed into T scores according to the Chinese norm. Both FED and RMD patients displayed deficits of mild-to-medium severity across all cognitive domains and their subtests, relative to HCs (Cohen's d = 0.12-0.62). Among MDD patients, RMD patients exhibited poorer verbal learning (Cohen's d = 0.17) and visual learning (Cohen's d = 0.21) than FED patients. MDD patients in the acute phase exhibited broad cognitive impairments, and there were significant differences in verbal and visual learning between FED and RMD patients. Our findings indicate that more attention should be paid to the domains of verbal and visual learning in future screening assessments and targeted interventions.