title: Apathy and executive function in depressed elderly.
abstract: Apathy and executive cognitive dysfunction (ECD) are important though conceptually different aspects of late-life depression. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship of apathy to ECD. The authors also evaluated the relationship of apathy and ECD to global cognitive impairment and word generation. Fifty-two elderly subjects with major depression and MMSE scores of 15 or greater were evaluated with apathy-related items from the Hamilton rating scale for depression (ApHRSD), the Executive Interview (EXIT), the Dementia Rating Scale (DRS), and the Controlled Oral Word Association test (COWA). ApHRSD scores were not significantly correlated with any of these variables. EXIT scores were correlated significantly with DRS and COWA. The results suggest that apathy and ECD may be independent of each other in some samples of elderly with late-life depression. Correlations may have been reduced by low variance for the variables of interest and by psychometric limitations of the ApHRSD.
authors.affiliation: The Intervention Research Center for the Study of Late-Life Mood Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pennsylvania, USA. rmarin@pitt.edu
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Marin
authors.forename: Meryl A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Butters
authors.forename: Benoit H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Mulsant
authors.forename: Bruce G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Pollock
authors.forename: Charles F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Reynolds
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014936:Word Association Tests