Verbal memory and aspects of attentional control in children and adolescents with anxiety disorders or depressive disorders.
BACKGROUND
The aim was to examine basic performance on attention and memory tasks in treatment-naive children and adolescents with anxiety disorder or depressive disorder and in healthy subjects under drug-free conditions.


METHODS
Basic neurocognitive performance on attention and verbal memory tasks was examined in children and adolescents with emotional disorders, between 6 and 17 years of age. A total of 34 children with an anxiety disorder, 31 children with a depressive disorder, and 33 healthy controls were assessed with a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. All children were treatment-naive at the time of testing. Five different computerised attention tasks and the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test were administered.


RESULTS
A significant effect of diagnosis was found for verbal memory but not for attention.


CONCLUSIONS
The large age range and inclusion of different diagnoses resulted in rather inhomogeneous groups.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study provided evidence for an undisturbed attentional performance in both patient groups and a dissociation in memory functioning between anxious and depressed children. Memory impairment was found to be specifically associated with childhood depression.
Günther
Thomas
T
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital of Aachen, Neuenhofer Weg 21, D-52074 Aachen, Germany. thomas.guenther2@post.rwth-aachen.de
Holtkamp
K
K
Jolles
J
J
Herpertz-Dahlmann
B
B
Konrad
K
K
D000293:Adolescent; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D012016:Reference Values; D014706:Verbal Learning