Learning and memory in bipolar and unipolar major depression, effects of aging

Objective: The goal of this study was to examine the effects of aging an ne uropsychological functions in bipolar and unipolar major depression. Backgr ound: Earlier studies suggested that neurocognitive deficits in mood disord er patients correlate with duration and severity of illness and also that b ipolar disorder has a more virulent course than unipolar disorder. We hypot hesized that elderly patients with bipolar disorder will demonstrate greate r neurocognitive dysfunction than young patients with bipolar disorder and elderly patients with unipolar disorder. Method: A battery of tests of gene ral intelligence and learning and memory was administered to 79 inpatients with major depression referred for electroconvulsive therapy. With patients 60 years of age and older defined as elderly, there were 29 young and 24 e lderly unipolar patients and 13 young and 13 elderly bipolar patients. Resu lts: Unipolar and bipolar patients did not differ in measures of general in telligence or global cognitive status. Generally, across tests of memory, y oung bipolar patients exhibited the best performance and elderly bipolar pa tients exhibited the poorest performance. Conclusions: The results suggest that over the course of their illness, patients with bipolar disorder exper ience greater deterioration in memory functions than patients with unipolar disorder. Longitudinal studies are required to support the preliminary fin dings of this cross-sectional study.