Abstract

MAZO, Adriana; MARTIN, Patricia  and  ARENALO, José Sinai. MAJOR DEPRESSION: NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE AND SPECT. rev.colomb.psiquiatr. [online]. 1999, vol.28, n.3, pp.189-204. ISSN 0034-7450.

Objective: In this research, authors evaluated the presence or absence of differences in brain perfussion and cognitive functioning in patients with Unipolar Major Depression Dísorder, compared with normal controls. Method: Neuropsychological tests were administered to ten subjects with Major Depressive Disorder Episode and nine controls, to assess mnesic, linguistic, attentional, conceptual and visospatial functions. A study of cerebral perfussion -SPECT- with HMPAO was also conducted. Results: The main differences observedín performance of neuropsychological tests in depressive patients, compared with controls, were found in the Trail Making Test (A and B), Judgement of Line Orientation and in the task of cued delayed recall of the California Verbal Learning Test. Frontal and temporal hypoperfussion was found in the visual analysis (SPECT) of patients with depressive disorder. Conclusions: In our study, findings of other authors about patients with Unipolar Major Depressive Disorder, showing impairment of cerebral perfussion, were con firmed, especially in temporal and frontal regions. It was not possible to establish the specific type of cognitive impairment in these patients.

Keywords : Neuropsychogical Assessment; Cognitive Functions; Mayor Depressive Disorder; SPECT, Cerebral Blood Flow.

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