SPECT neuropsychological activation procedure with the Verbal Fluency Test in attempted suicide patients
- 1 September 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Nuclear Medicine Communications
- Vol. 23 (9), 907-916
- https://doi.org/10.1097/00006231-200209000-00015
Abstract
Performance on the Verbal Fluency Test, as a measure of the ability of initiating processes, is reduced in depressed suicidal patients. The hampered results in this prefrontal executive task parallel the reduction in prefrontal blood perfusion and metabolism in depressed subjects. A neuropsychological activation study with the verbal fluency paradigm could evaluate a possible blunted increase in perfusion in the prefrontal cortex in depressed suicidal patients. Twenty clinically depressed patients who had recently attempted suicide and 20 healthy volunteers were included in a single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) split-dose activation study following a verbal fluency paradigm. Statistical parametric mapping was used to determine voxelwise significant changes. Differences in regional cortical activation between the letter fluency and category fluency tasks in attempted suicide patients were found. These patients showed a blunted increase in perfusion in the prefrontal cortex. Methodological restrictions concerning group uniformity, medication bias and subjective effort of the participants are discussed. Our findings indicate a blunted increase in prefrontal blood perfusion as a possible biological reason for reduced drive and loss of initiative in attempted suicide patients.Keywords
This publication has 40 references indexed in Scilit:
- Executive functioning and verbal memory in young patients with unipolar depression and schizophreniaPsychiatry Research, 1999
- Initiation and supervisory processes in schizophrenia and depressionSchizophrenia Research, 1998
- Executive deficits in major depressionActa Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 1998
- The interaction between mood and cognitive function studied with PETPsychological Medicine, 1997
- Assessment of Frontal Lobe Functioning in Schizophrenia and Unipolar Major DepressionPsychopathology, 1993
- "No longer gage": Frontal lobe dysfunction and emotional changes.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1992
- A PET study of word findingNeuropsychologia, 1991
- Performance of Schizophrenic Patients on Tests Sensitive To Left or Right Frontal, Temporal, or Parietal Function in Neurological PatientsJournal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 1983
- Psychological deficit in depression.Psychological Bulletin, 1975
- The left frontal lobe of man and the suppression of habitual responses in verbal categorical behaviourNeuropsychologia, 1974