Differential performance on tasks of affective processing and decision-making in patients with Panic Disorder and Panic Disorder with comorbid Major Depressive Disorder.
BACKGROUND
Neuropsychological studies have provided evidence for deficits in psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and mood disorders. However, neuropsychological function in Panic Disorder (PD) or PD with a comorbid diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) has not been comprehensively studied. The present study investigated neuropsychological functioning in patients with PD and PD + MDD by focusing on tasks that assess attention, psychomotor speed, executive function, decision-making, and affective processing.


METHODS
Twenty-two unmedicated patients with PD, eleven of whom had a secondary diagnosis of MDD, were compared to twenty-two healthy controls, matched for gender, age, and intelligence on tasks of attention, memory, psychomotor speed, executive function, decision-making, and affective processing from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), Cambridge Gamble Task, and Affective Go/No-go Task.


RESULTS
Relative to matched healthy controls, patients with PD + MDD displayed an attentional bias toward negatively-valenced verbal stimuli (Affective Go/No-go Task) and longer decision-making latencies (Cambridge Gamble Task). Furthermore, the PD + MDD group committed more errors on a task of memory and visual discrimination compared to their controls. In contrast, no group differences were found for PD patients relative to matched control subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
The sample size was limited, however, all patients were drug-free at the time of testing.


CONCLUSIONS
The PD + MDD patients demonstrated deficits on a task involving visual discrimination and working memory, and an attentional bias towards negatively-valenced stimuli. In addition, patients with comorbid depression provided qualitatively different responses in the areas of affective and decision-making processes.
Kaplan
Johanna S
JS
Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, DHHS, Bethesda MD, USA.
Erickson
Kristine
K
Luckenbaugh
David A
DA
Weiland-Fiedler
Petra
P
Geraci
Marilla
M
Sahakian
Barbara J
BJ
Charney
Dennis
D
Drevets
Wayne C
WC
Neumeister
Alexander
A
D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications; D003657:Decision Making; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D011603:Psychophysiology