The relation of depression and anxiety to measures of executive functioning in a mixed psychiatric sample.
The relationship between mood and executive functioning is of particular importance to neuropsychologists working with mixed psychiatric samples. The present study evaluated the relation of self-reported depression and anxiety to several common measures of executive functioning: the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Trail Making Test, the Controlled Oral Word Association, and the Letter-Number Sequencing subtest of the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale-III. Records from 86 adult patients evaluated in an outpatient psychiatry unit were examined. Correlations between self-reported depression or anxiety and most measures of executive functioning were small and non-significant. The variance predicted by depression or anxiety after controlling for age, gender, and IQ was minimal (typically < or =3.0%), even after conducting diagnostic subgroup analyses. These results suggest that impaired performance on measures of executive functioning is minimally related to self-reported depression and anxiety within mixed psychiatric settings.
Smitherman
Todd A
TA
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 2500 N. State Street, Jackson, MS 39216, USA. tsmitherman@umsmed.edu
Huerkamp
Justin K
JK
Miller
Brian I
BI
Houle
Timothy T
TT
O'Jile
Judith R
JR
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics; D014145:Trail Making Test / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014888:Wechsler Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data