tailieunhanh - Báo cáo y học: "Alertness and visuospatial attention in clinical depression"

Tuyển tập báo cáo các nghiên cứu khoa học quốc tế ngành y học dành cho các bạn tham khảo đề tài: Alertness and visuospatial attention in clinical depression | Schock et al. BMC Psychiatry 2011 11 78 http 1471-244X 11 78 BMC Psychiatry RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Alertness and visuospatial attention in clinical depression Lisa Schock1 2 Michael Schwenzer1 2 Walter Sturm3t and Klaus Mathiak1 2 4t Abstract Background Cognitive deficits are a substantial burden in clinical depression. The present study considered dysfunction in the right-hemispheric attention network in depression examining alertness and visuospatial attention. Methods Three computerized visuospatial attention tests and an alertness test were administered to 16 depressive patients and 16 matched healthy controls. Results Although no significant group effect was observed alertness predicted reduced visuospatial performance in the left hemifield. Furthermore sad mood showed a trend towards predicting left visual field omissions. Conclusions Decreased alertness may lead to lower left hemifield visuospatial attention this mechanism may be responsible for a spatial bias to the right side in depression even though treatment of depression and anxiety may reduce this cognitive deficit. Background It is well documented that depressive disorders are associated with cognitive deficits including problems with attention executive functions and memory 1-4 . Cognitive symptoms are often considered by-products of depression and expected to diminish with clinical improvement. For many patients however cognitive impairments represent a primary concern and are noted to chronically impair activities of daily living 5 . For example visuospatial neglect can interfere with navigation in space - one of our clinical cases reported falling into the installation pit of his workshop when passing on the right-hand side. In this individual in addition to hemineglect moderate to severe depressive scores were reported and then with remission of the depression neuropsychological deficits also subsided. In the present study we focused on visuospatial deficits in .