Evaluation of Executive Functions in Patients of Unipolar and Bipolar Depression
Journal Title: International Journal of Research and Review - Year 2017, Vol 4, Issue 9
Abstract
Background: Depression, bipolar and unipolar both have disturbances in executive functioning with loss of spontaneous and reactive cognitive flexibility. The cognitive rigidity associated with dorsolateral prefrontal dysfunction in depression may prevent patients to cope with life events and lead to a perpetuation of depressed mood by continuation of stress exposure. Though this is an area which has not been widely explored, yet it has great potential as an aid to clinical diagnosis in distinction of bipolar from unipolar depression. Methods: The study was carried out in the Department of Psychiatry, Major S D Singh Medical College and Hospital, Farrukhabad, between the periods, June 2014 to Sep 2015.The present study was conducted to evaluate the executive function ability in patients of unipolar and bipolar depression. Patients of both groups were compared during their active phase of illness and after recovery for severity of depression by using Hamilton rating scale of depression (HAM-D) and for executive function abilities by WCST at regular intervals. Results: Out of 60 patients, 7 patients dropped out due to no apparent reason. Out of remaining 53 patients, 27 patients were in unipolar group & 26 patients were in bipolar depression group. On comparison of mean HAM-D score at the beginning, unipolar and bipolar depression patients were found to differ significantly in severity. It was found that bipolar depression patients were more depressed in severity. But on reassessment at 6 weeks and 6 months after appropriate treatment, both groups were not different significantly on HAM-D scores. On comparison, the number of categories completed and perseverative errors committed by bipolar depression patients were significantly different in comparison to unipolar depression patients at the beginning of study, also after 6 weeks and 6 months of treatment. This also shows that patients of bipolar depression completed lesser number of categories and committed more perseverative errors than patients of unipolar depression. In comparison to unipolar, patients of bipolar depression showed poorer performance of executive functioning on WCST. Conclusion: The study indicates that patients of unipolar and bipolar depression demonstrate significant deficits in the executive functioning as assessed by WCST. The patients of bipolar depression showed more significant deficit in executive functions compared to patients of unipolar depression. This finding is consistent with the observation that there is more definitive cognitive deterioration in bipolar depression compared to unipolar depression. Also patients with more severe depression were having greater impairment in executive functioning than those suffering with lesser degree of depression.
Authors and Affiliations
Vinay Kumar Srivastava
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP367342
- DOI -
- Views 78
- Downloads 0
Impact of Self Concept and Emotional Intelligence on Adjustment of Adults
The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of self concept and emotional intelligence on adjustment of adults. A sample of three hundred post graduate students (one hundred fifty male and one hundred fifty femal...
Socio- Economic and Demographic Variables Impacting the Costing of Diabetes Mellitus in an Urban Slum in Mumbai
Although Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common chronic disease in nearly all countries, India is on the brink of an epidemic of Diabetes Mellitus. It is an escalating problem in India and has major socioeconomic dimensions....
Fabrication & Evaluation of Ketoprofen Loaded Cubogel for Topical Sustained Delivery
The present study is concerned with the development and characterization of a novel nanoparticulate system; cubosomes, of Ketoprofen loaded hydrogel to reduce the gastro intestinal effects with sustaining bioavailability...
Diclofenac Induced Gastritis: A Case Report
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are extensively used as anti-inflammatory agents, antipyretics and analgesics by many patients worldwide. The evidence based mechanism of therapeutic effects of NSAIDS is due to inhi...
Prevalence of Hemoglobinopathies in Antenatal Screening by HPLC
We studied a total of 234 married, pregnant females coming for routine antenatal screening for presence or absence of Hemoglobinopathies over a period of one year in a tertiary level hospital. The prevalence was found to...