Differences of cognitive functions and activity of daily living according to presence of depressive symptoms among dementia patients

Abstract

Objectives: To determine whether depression is related to the impairment of daily activities and to certain areas of cognitive function in dementia patients.Methods: 30 dementia patients with depression, 19 dementia patients without depression who visited cheju national university hospital from November of 2006 to October 2007 were assigned for the study. CERAD-K, MMSE-KC, BDS-ADL, K-GDS were used to check cognitive function and activity of daily living, and depression, the two groups were compared using x² test and independent t-test.Result: SBT-K (Korean version of Short Blessed Test) [21.44(SD = 6.93) vs 16.17(SD = 7.25)], Verbal fluency[4.05(SD = 2.76) vs 6.37CSD = 3.02)], Word list memory [3.53(SD = 3.73) vs 6.07(SD = 4.20)], Word list recall [0.58(SD = 1.30) vs 1.93CSD = 1.84)] scores were statistically different between the two groups. BDS-ADL(Blessed Dementia Scale-Activities of Daily Living), CDR (Clinical Dementia Rating Scale), Naming, MMSE-KC, Constructional praxis, Word list recognition, Constructional praxis recall, Subjective Memory Complaint(SMC) were not different between the two groups.Conclusions: these result suggest that depression in patient with dementia is not highly related to the functional impairment.