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Italian neurologists’ perception on cognitive symptoms in major depressive disorder

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Abstract

The assessment of cognition is an important part of major depressive disorder (MDD) evaluation and a crucial issue is the physicians’ perception of cognitive dysfunction in MDD that remains nowadays a little known matter. The present study aims at investigating the understanding of neurologists’ perception about cognitive dysfunction in MDD. An on-line survey addressed to 85 Italian neurologists in the period between May and June 2015 was performed. The questionnaire comprised three sections: the first section collecting information on neurologists’ socio-demographic profile, the second investigating cognitive symptoms relevance in relation with different aspects and the third one explicitly focusing on cognitive symptoms in MDD. Cognitive symptoms are considered most significant among DSM-5 symptoms to define the presence of a Major Depressive Episode in a MDD, to improve antidepressant therapy adherence, patients’ functionality and concurrent neurological condition, once resolved. Furthermore, an incongruity came to light from this survey: the neurologists considered cognitive symptoms a not relevant aspect to choose the antidepressant treatment in comparison with the other DSM-5 symptoms on one side, but they declared the opposite in the third part of the questionnaire focused on cognitive symptoms. Cognitive symptoms appeared to be a relevant aspect in MDD and neurologists have a clear understanding of this issue. Nevertheless, the discrepancy between neurologists’ perception on cognitive symptoms and the antidepressant treatment highlights the feeling of an unmet need that could be filled increasing the awareness of existing drugs with pro-cognitive effects.

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Acknowledgments

Claudio Ripellino and Nazarena Cataldo were responsible for survey design, data analyses and writing of the manuscript. Giuseppe Neri, Carlo Serrati and Paolo Zolo were responsible for clinical validation of the study and review of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. A courtesy review was also performed by Lundbeck S.p.A.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Italian Society of Hospital Neurologists, Rome, Italy

    G. Neri

  2. Department of Neurology, San Filippo Neri Hospital, Rome, Italy

    G. Neri

  3. Department of Neurology, IRCCS San Martino Hospital—IST, Genoa, Italy

    C. Serrati

  4. Ambulatorio Malattie Neurodegenerative, Istituto di Riabilitazione MDP, Agazzi, Italy

    P. Zolo

  5. IMS Health Information Solutions Italy srl, Milan, Italy

    N. Cataldo & C. Ripellino

Authors
  1. G. Neri
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  2. C. Serrati
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  3. P. Zolo
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  4. N. Cataldo
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  5. C. Ripellino
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Ripellino.

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Conflict of interest

This survey was supported by an unrestricted grant from Lundbeck S.p.A., which was not responsible for the content of this survey, data analysis, data interpretation, medical writing or editorial assistance. Giuseppe Neri, Carlo Serrati and Paolo Zolo have received honoraria from IMS Health Information Solutions Italy srl and Claudio Ripellino and Nazarena Cataldo are employees of IMS Health Information Solutions Italy srl. The authors have indicated that they have no other conflict of interest with regard to the content of this article.

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Neri, G., Serrati, C., Zolo, P. et al. Italian neurologists’ perception on cognitive symptoms in major depressive disorder. Neurol Sci 37, 1437–1442 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-016-2601-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-016-2601-2

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