Effect of depression on neuropsychological functioning in head injury: measurable but minimal.
The goals of the study were to determine how neuropsychological functioning is related to depressive status in persons with head injury, and to quantify this relationship from a clinically relevant standpoint. Participants were 175 adults involved in litigation, referred for evaluation of suspected head injury. Depression status was measured using the Depression Content (Dep) scale of the MMPI-2. Depression status was related to measures of visual attention and psychomotor skills, but not to other neuropsychological domains such as verbal ability, visual-spatial reasoning, or encoding/organization. However, differences between low Dep and high Dep groups were minimal from a clinical standpoint. Depression appeared to contribute to an increased risk of impaired neuropsychological performance across domains, but only in persons not severely compromised by neuropsychological deficits. Overall, the results indicated a small effect of depression on neuropsychological functioning that is likely only detectable in persons whose neuropsychological compromise is relatively minimal.
Psychology Department, British Columbia's Children's Hospital, Vancouver, Canada. esherman@cw.bc.ca
E M
EM
Sherman
E
E
Strauss
D J
DJ
Slick
F
F
Spellacy
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011596:Psychomotor Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology