THE MINI-MENTAL-STATE-EXAMINATION AMONG ADULT OUTPATIENTS WITH MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER

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.