Neuropsychological test performances of young depressed outpatient women: An examination of executive functions

Thirty young, unmedicated, outpatient depressed women were compared to an e qual number of matching controls on a series of neuropsychological tests pu rported to be sensitive to the executive functions. Specifically, the measu res included the Design Fluency Test, Hand Dynamometer tasks of grip streng th, perseveration and fatigue, the FAS Verbal Fluency Test, the Stroop Colo r and Word Test, and the Trail Making Test (Parts A and B). Despite past re search which has indicated anterior hemispheric asymmetries and impaired ne urocognitive performances in depressives, this research failed to identify any reliable differences between depressed and nondepressed women on any of the neuropsychological measures. These results argue against the frequentl y held stereotype that depressed individuals typically display impaired per formances on neurocognitive tasks. Furthermore, since the profile of the de pressed sample appeared to differ significantly from past studies, a discus sion is provided as to how the characteristics of this group may have impac ted the results. Implications of these findings for clinical practice and f uture research are also provided. (C) 1999 National Academy of Neuropsychol ogy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.