Neuropsychological Clustering Highlights Cognitive Differences In Young People Presenting With Depressive Symptoms
- 4 January 2011
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
- Vol. 17 (2), 267-276
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355617710001566
Abstract
Early stages of affective or psychotic disorders may be accompanied by neuropsychological changes that help to predict risk of developing more severe disorders. A comprehensive set of neuropsychological measures was collected in 109 help-seeking young people (16 to 30 years; 54 females), recently diagnosed with an affective or psychotic disorder and presenting with current depression. Hierarchical cluster analysis determined three clusters: one deemed to have a “poor memory” profile (n= 40); another with a “poor mental flexibility” profile (n= 38) and a third with widespread difficulties plus “impaired attention and memory” (n= 31). In general, the three clusters were comparable in demographic, functional and clinical factors suggesting some unique role for neurocognitive impairments. A discriminant function analysis confirmed that the clusters were best characterized by performance in “attentional”versus“learning/memory” measures. Furthermore, profiles of independent neuropsychological variables validated the original solution for two of the clusters, distinguishing all cluster-groups on an attentional measure. The findings of this study suggest that despite presenting with very similar levels of current depressive symptomatology, young help-seeking individuals in the early stages of illness have underlying neuropsychological heterogeneity. Distinct neuropsychological profiling may help to predict later psychiatric outcomes and enhance individually-tailored early intervention strategies. (JINS, 2011,17, 267–276)This publication has 60 references indexed in Scilit:
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