The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has a wonderful summary that looks at the reality of cognitive functioning during depression. This summary was very helpful to me to determine what to include in the “cognitive functions” definition in this week’s radio segment. It is an academic paper and therefore pretty heavy on the jargon and statistics. The information in this study is a bit dense so I’m going to unpack it a bit. I will be defining a bunch of vocabulary in this post. I am a firm believer that education encourages conversation, so I will be unpacking psychological studies, summaries or reviews on this blog regularly.
The study’s goal was to summarize the vast load of information on cognitive function in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) that a large number of studies have addressed. The data is divided into different cognitive subdivisions, such as executive functions (self regulation and the ability to manage various tasks), attention (focusing on important stimulus or subject while ignoring other sounds or unimportant information), memory, and psychomotor speed (synchronizing mind and body to achieve a desired result).
The summary states that most of the studies included in this summary are only addressing the “acute symptoms” of MDD. That simply means that the initial or immediate symptoms present at the onset of the illness(a.k.a. acute symptoms) are addressed. They do state that longitudinal studies (studies that observe factors- in this case cognitive ability- over a period of time) show that the acute symptoms involving cognitive ability are longer lasting than the acute studies were able to observe.
One of the findings regarding attention is stated, “In sum, impairment in attention related tasks is frequently reported in the acute phase of MDD,” and continues on to say “An important discussion is whether specific aspects of attention are more vulnerable [in patients with MDD], and what impact these attention deficits have for daily life functioning, treatment and recovery in this patient group.”
The next finding is a bit more convoluted as it is a very complex subject. Memory problems can stem from and display themselves in many different processes and types of memory. Immediate verbal recall (i.e. repeating something that was said), and long term memory recall (i.e. remembering last year’s Christmas presents), are two different memory types and therefore are affected differently by mental illnesses like MDD. The NCBI summary states that in at least 10 different studies focusing on memory impairments in patients with MDD have found varying, and sometimes contradictory, findings. But something that is the same across all studies included is that “ memory impairment is frequently reported in the acute phase of MDD, however the nature and the mechanisms behind this impairment is somewhat unclear.”
Another finding in the summary states that the effects of these cognitive impairments that are present in the onset stage of this illness, very clearly (and sometimes severely) affect daily life. Daily life includes work, family life, and health.
This summary has many more statistics and specific findings stated in its sections but the above break down holds (in my mind) the most important parts for wide public consumption. If you would like to know some ways of handling these impairments, stay tuned for the next blog post! If you have any questions please contact me or leave a message and I will try to get back to you asap!