Executive deficits in elderly patients with major unipolar depression.

Several studies have evaluated executive function in depressed patients, and the results vary from significant impairment relative to controls to virtually intact performances. To better comprehend executive impairment in elderly patients with major unipolar depression, the performance of 21 elderly depressed patients was compared with that of 19 elderly normal controls on executive tasks. The relationships between memory deficits and depression severity and between memory deficits and executive dysfunction were also examined. Depressed patients' performance was significantly worse than that of controls on almost all executive tasks. Their score for logical memory was significantly correlated with that for several executive tasks. Executive performance was also correlated with depression severity. Unipolar depressed patients present executive deficits. Memory failure in these patients may reflect impairment in retrieval processes, which in turn depends on executive function. Executive deficits are associated with depression severity. These results may be useful in the differential diagnosis between depression and early Alzheimer's disease.