title: What role does depression play on the performance of the Ruff 2 and 7 Selective Attention Test?
abstract: Depression is frequently a comorbid symptom in patients suffering from neurological or psychiatric illnesses, and this presents a challenge for the differential diagnosis of neuropsychological functioning, especially in the assessment of concentration. The 2 & 7 test was administered to 27 patients with major depression without other neurological or psychiatric illnesses. The average percentile rankings fell within the unimpaired range, with 42.7% for speed, 36.3% for accuracy, and 44.9% for processing. Only three patients were significantly slowed in performance speed, of whom two also showed deficient motor speed on eye-hand coordination performances. None demonstrated deficient accuracy rates, yet four patients were impaired in parallel processing. Thus, major depression did not for the majority of these patients impair 2 & 7 test performance, particularly if no concurrent motor slowing was present. Four guidelines for differential diagnosis are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Neurosurgery, University of California, San Francisco.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Ruff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D011930:Reaction Time