COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENTS IN PATIENTS WITH SEASONAL AFFECTIVE-DISORDER

Eleven patients with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and ten control s matched for age, IQ, and education were tested on a number of comput erised tests designed to assess attention, memory, and learning. When depressed, patients showed no deficit in attention but were impaired o n spatial memory and learning. They were also significantly slower to respond than controls, with a pattern that suggested slowed informatio n processing centrally, rather than simple sensory or motor slowing. O n recovery from depression, improvement was seen in most tests, althou gh impairment remained in latency to respond on a test of spatial memo ry. This continuing impairment correlated with residual depressive sym ptoms but not with ventricular brain ratio (VBR).