Je. Alpert et al., THE MINI-MENTAL-STATE-EXAMINATION AMONG ADULT OUTPATIENTS WITH MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER, Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 63(3-4), 1995, pp. 207-211
One hundred forty-eight patients, ages 18-65, with major depression we
re administered the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) prior to 8 we
eks of treatment with fluoxetine; 75 of these patients were readminist
ered the MMSE following treatment. MMSE scores were not related to pre
treatment severity of depression or to reported concentration problems
and were not predicitve of antidepressant response. Non- and partial
responders had lower posttreatment MMSE scores than responders, men ha
d lower posttreatment scores than women, and subjects over 50 had lowe
r pretreatment scores than younger subjects, although in all cases, th
e magnitude of the differences was small and unlikely to be clinically
important. Our results suggest that while the MMSE has been shown to
be useful among geriatric and other depressed inpatients, it is not a
sensitive indicator of depression severity, concentration problems, or
likelihood of treatment response among otherwise healthy adults with
major depression in an outpatient setting.