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Relationship between childhood maltreatment and cognitive function in medication-free patients with major depressive disorder

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Abstract

This study aimed to elucidate the contribution of childhood maltreatment (CM) and the disease of major depressive disorder (MDD) on cognitive function in medication-free patients in a current depressive episode, and to examine the effect of CM on the improvement of cognitive function after treatment with antidepressants. One hundred and fifty-three unmedicated patients with MDD and 142 healthy controls (HCs) underwent clinical interviews. CM assessment was performed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and a battery of comprehensive neurocognitive tests was used to assess the participants’ executive function, processing speed, attention, and memory. After 6 months of treatment with antidepressants, the neurocognitive tests were reperformed in patients with MDD and HCs. There was a significant main effect of MDD on all four cognitive domains, while the main effect of CM was only significant on memory. No significant interactive effect was found between MDD and CM on any of the cognitive domains. In the MDD group, higher CTQ total score was predictive of poorer memory performance. After treatment, significant main effects of treatment and MDD were found on all four cognitive domains in remitted patients with MDD. No significant main effect of CM or three-way interaction effect of treatment × MDD × CM was found on any of the cognitive domains. The disease of MDD contributed to impairments in all four cognitive domains. CM independently contributed to memory impairment in patients in a current depressive episode, with higher severity of CM predictive of poorer memory performance.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021ZD0202000, 2019YFA0706200), the Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province (2021RC2040), the National Science and Technologic Program of China (2015BAI13B02), the Defense Innovative Special Region Program (17–163-17-XZ-004-005-01), the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2022JJ40701, 2020JJ5844) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81171286, 91232714, 82171518, 82101612 and 81601180). Yumeng Ju’s work is supported by the Central South Postdoctoral Programme.

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Author notes

  1. Weilong Guo and Jin Liu authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, 410011, Hunan, China

    Weilong Guo, Jin Liu, Bangshan Liu, Mi Wang, Qiangli Dong, Xiaowen Lu, Jinrong Sun, Liang Zhang, Weihui Li, Zexuan Li, Mei Liao, Li Zhang, Yan Zhang, Yumeng Ju & Lingjiang Li

  2. Zhumadian Psychiatric Hospital, Zhumadian, 463000, Henan, China

    Hua Guo & Futao Zhao

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  1. Weilong Guo
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  2. Jin Liu
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  3. Bangshan Liu
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  4. Mi Wang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by WG, JL, BL, MW, QD, XL, JS, LZ, HG, FZ, WL, ZL, ML, LZ, YZ, YJ, and LL. The first draft of the manuscript was written by WG and JL, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yumeng Ju or Lingjiang Li.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Zhumadian Psychiatric Hospital and the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

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Guo, W., Liu, J., Liu, B. et al. Relationship between childhood maltreatment and cognitive function in medication-free patients with major depressive disorder. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 273, 1073–1083 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-022-01458-w

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