Objectives: This study investigated cognitive impairment in late-life depression in a follow-up design. The main objective was to assess the most important cognitive domains implicated in late-life depression, in patients who underwent pharmacological treatment, in the acute phase and twelve months after.
Methods: Neuropsychological and clinical data were used from the baseline of patients and controls, to determine the cognitive impairment in the acute phase. Patients repeated the neuropsychological assessment at twelve months.
Results: There were significant differences between patients and controls at baseline. But in the patients there was no change over twelve months. There were no differences between remitted and non-remitted patients on neuropsychological scores.
Conclusions: The cognitive impairment seen in the elderly depressed patients seems to be a trait characteristic of this mental disease, even when the depressive episode has remitted.
Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.