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A meta-analysis of cognitive functions in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder

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Abstract

The cumulative prevalence rates of major depressive disorders (MDD) in children and adolescents averages 9.5 %. The majority of adults with MDD suffer from significant cognitive deficits, but the available neuropsychological data on the cognitive performance of children and adolescents with MDD yielded mixed results. Meta-analytic methods were used to assess the severity of cognitive deficits in children and adolescents with MDD as compared to healthy children and adolescents. We identified 17 studies comparing the intelligence, executive functions, verbal memory and attention of 447 patients with DSM-IV MDD and 1,347 healthy children and adolescents. Children and adolescents with MDD performed 0.194–0.772 (p < 0.001) standard mean differences worse than healthy control subjects in neuropsychological test procedures. The most pronounced deficits of children and adolescents with MDD were seen in inhibition capacity (STD = 0.772; p = 0.002), phonemic verbal fluency (STD = 0.756; p = 0.0001), sustained attention (STD = 0.522; p = 0.000), verbal memory (STD = 0.516; p = 0.0009) and planning (STD = 0.513; p = 0.014). We revealed cognitive deficits of children and adolescents with MDD in various cognitive domains. Long-term studies should investigate how the cognitive deficits of depressed youth affect their academic and social functioning, and whether age, comorbidity and depression severity play a role in this process.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Maria Cataldo and colleagues for providing them with the data of their studies. The study is part of the diploma thesis of Carmen Müller.

Conflict of interest

AT has received research funding from Rulesbasedmedicine Inc., Austin, Texas, USA. None of the other authors of this study has business or personal interests in industrial enterprises since 1 November 2009.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Centre Mainz, Untere Zahlbacher Str. 8, Mainz, Germany

    Stefanie Wagner, Carmen Müller, Isabella Helmreich & André Tadić

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Centre Mainz, Mainz, Germany

    Michael Huss

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  1. Stefanie Wagner
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  2. Carmen Müller
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  3. Isabella Helmreich
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  4. Michael Huss
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Correspondence to Stefanie Wagner.

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Wagner, S., Müller, C., Helmreich, I. et al. A meta-analysis of cognitive functions in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 24, 5–19 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0559-2

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