Neuropsychological changes and treatment response in severe depression

Impaired neuropsychological function and differences in facial emotion processing are features of major depression. Some aspects of these functions may change during treatment and may be useful in assessing treatment response, even at an early stage of treatment.

To examine early and later changes in neuropsychological functioning and facial emotion processing as potential markers of treatment response in major depression.

In total, 68 newly admitted in-patients with a primary diagnosis of major depression and 50 healthy controls completed an assessment, including mood ratings, neuropsychological measures and facial emotion processing measures at three time points (baseline, 10-14 days and 6 weeks).

Pervasive neuropsychological impairment was evident at baseline in patients with depression compared with healthy controls. During 6 weeks of treatment, only simple reaction time, verbal working memory and the recognition of angry facial expressions showed differential change in those whose depression responded to treatment compared with treatment non-responders in the depression group. None of the measures showed a significant difference between treatment responders and non-responders at 10-14 days.

Despite significant impairment in neuropsychological functioning in the depression group, most measures failed to differentiate between treatment responders and non-responders at 10-14 days or at 6 weeks. Simple reaction time, verbal working memory and recognition of angry facial expressions may be useful in assessing response in severe depression but probably not at an early stage.