B - 34 Depression and Cognition in a Mexican Adolescent Population.

Abstract

We evaluated the influence of depression on cognition in a healthy Mexican Spanish speaking population. The sample consisted of 41 Mexican adolescents all residing in Mexico with a mean age of 18.59 (SD = 0.50). They were divided into two depression groups: normal symptoms of depression (NSD; n = 26) and abnormal symptoms of depression (ASD; n = 15). Participants completed the Word Accentuation Test, all the subtests of the Stroop Color Word Test (SCWT), Boston Naming Test, Phonemic Fluency Test (i.e., FAS), Semantic Fluency Test, Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure, and all the subtests of the Digit Span in Spanish. Additionally, participants completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in Spanish to report their current level of depression. Independent Sample T-tests were used to examine cognition performance. We used a threshold of p < 0.05 for statistical significance. Results revealed the NSD group outperformed the ASD group on the SCWT-Color, Phonemic Fluency Test, Semantic Fluency Test, Boston Naming Test, and Digit Span backwards tasks, p's < 0.05. As expected, the NSD group demonstrated better cognitive abilities compared to the ASD group. Our data suggests that the current level of depression had a significant influence on cognitive abilities in an adolescent Spanish speaking population. Future studies with larger sample size should evaluate if current symptoms of depression influence non-verbal cognitive abilities in a Spanish speaking Mexican population. More research that evaluates both verbal and non-verbal abilities will help researchers and clinicians determine if current level of depression influences Spanish speaking adolescents' cognition.