Differences in Cognitive Function and Activities of Daily Living between Alzheimer Patients with Depression and Those without Depression

Sohn, Seok Han; Choi, Tae kyu; Oh, Byoung Hoon; Ohrr, Heechoul; Kim, Seung Min; An, Suk Kyoon; Yoo, Kae Joon

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Coexistence of depression is one of the important behavioral symptoms in patients with dementia of Alzheimer type. The study on the relationship between depression and cognitive abilities and/or functional abilities emerges as very important one. The aim of this study was to investigate whether depression is related to the impairment of daily activities and to certain areas of cognitive function in mild to moderate dementia of Alzheimer type.
METHODS
In this study, 48 patients with dementia of Alzheimer type among elderly community-residents in Kwangju, Kyunggi province, aged 65 and older, were finally included. We examined their demographics and administered Korean Version of the Mini-Mental State Examination(MMSE-K), Korean Version of the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination(Korean version of NCSE), Korean Form of Geriatric Depression Scale(KGDS), Activities of Daily Living(ADL), and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living(IADL) to the subjects. We classified the subjects into two groups, dementia with and without depression on the basis of KGDS scores. The two groups were compared using X2 test and independent ttest.
RESULTS
The results show that the two groups did not differ in sex, age, education, and scores of MMSE-K. The depressed dementia group showed significantly poorer performance in bathing, one item of ADL, than the nondepressed dementia group. The depressed dementia group showed significantly more impairment in total scores of IADL and each score of three items(shopping, housework, handling finances) than the non-depressed dementia group. However, the two groups showed no significant differences in five major cognitive ability areas of Korean version of NCSE.
CONCLUSION
These results suggest that depression in patients with dementia of Alzheimer type is highly related to the functional impairments, instrumental activities of daily living and part of activities of daily living, beyond the effects of cognitive impairments.