Depression influence on memory and executive functions in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, victims of the army conflict in Colombia.

Abstract

Introduction: Post traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a neuropsychiatric pathology. It is characterized by the fact that the subject has been exposed to stressful situations which have caused them physical, emotional and mental instability in different aspects of their daily life. The subjects diagnosed with PTSD show a clinical picture of severe depression which is related to a deficit in their neurocognitive functioning, especifically in memory tasks (operative memory and inmediate verbal memory) and in executive functions (semantic verbal fluency, inhibition, planning and control of their immediate conduct). Objective: To indentify the influence of depression on memory and the executive functioning in patients with PTSD who are victims of the army conflict in Colombia. Methodology: Participants: 50 people diagnosed with PTDS, depression, and without dementia (35 men and 15 women) participated in this study. The individuals were enlisted from the unit of victims affiliated with the municipality of Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia in a period of time from 2015 through 2017, and a control group of 50 healthy subjects with the objective to compare the results and be able to establish differences and intra-group robust results. Results: Individuals with PTSD show a higher depressive symptomatology than the ones in the control group. It was found that depression is related to the deficit in the immediate verbal memory, operative memory, and the executive functions in subjects with PTSD victims of the army conflict in Colombia.Conclusion: It is necessary to make plans for functional neurorehabilitation for individuals diagnosed with PTSD in order to improve their quality of life and to slow down their clinical picture to a posttraumatic dementia diagnose. The government needs to create mental health policies designed to counteract this neuropsychiatric pathology ;our main goal ,and the neurocognitive functioning, neurobehavioral/emotional, individual, and family neurorehabilitation of people with PTSD victims of the army conflict in Colombia, thus preventing clinical pictures of post-traumatic alexithymia.