title: Influence of gender and age on cognitive inhibition in late-onset depression: a case-control study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare cognitive inhibition performance between people with early-onset (EOD) or late-onset depression (LOD) and controls, and between women and men with LOD.
  
  
  METHODS
  On the basis of a case-control design, global executive performance (Frontal Assessment Battery); verbal (Hayling), attention (Stroop), and motor (Go/No-Go) components of cognitive inhibition; mental shifting (Trail Making Test parts A and B); and updating in working memory (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) were assessed in 40 participants (10 depressed women with LOD (i.e., ≥60 years old), 10 depressed women with EOD (i.e., <60 years old), 10 healthy women and 10 depressed men with LOD (i.e., ≥60 years old)).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Older depressed women, irrespective of age of depression onset, had greater cognitive inhibition impairments (attention and verbal component) compared with healthy women. LOD was significantly associated with the attention component of cognitive inhibition impairment, unlike EOD (p = 0.026). No executive differences were found regarding age of first-onset depression in older depressed women, and between women and men with LOD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cognitive inhibition impairment, and more specifically its attention component, was the main characteristic of depression in the studied sample of older adults, independently of gender and age of depression onset. It is essential to perform similar studies in both genders in view of future tailor-made therapeutic modalities.
authors.affiliation: McGill University, Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute McGill Group for Suicide Studies, Montréal, QC, Canada; Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire, UPRES EA 4638, Université d'Angers, Angers, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Richard-Devantoy
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Deguigne
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Annweiler
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Letourneau
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Beauchet
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: cognitive inhibition; early-onset depression; executive function; late-onset depression