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Executive functions in elderly men

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Abstract

The executive function deficit is greater in depressed patients with cardiovascular disease than in depressed patients without cardiovascular disease. Late-life depression is said to have a vascular etiology and would worsen the executive function. A cross-sectional design was used for this study. The study was done in outpatient clinics of Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital and National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Taiwan. Three hundred thirty-five older elderly men (>75 years old) were chosen as study participants, some military veterans and some not. The mini-mental state examination was used to exclude those suspected of dementia, the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview to screen those undergoing a current major depressive episode, and the revised Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form to measure the severity of depression. Specialist physicians obtained past histories of medical illnesses through chart reviews, history taking, and health examinations. Elderly men with major depression comorbid with cardiovascular disease had worse executive functions. Executive function impairment is greater in elderly men diagnosed with major depression comorbid with cardiovascular disease than in those without cardiovascular disease.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by grant VGHKS99-101 from the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan (to YCK) and by the National Cheng Kung University Project for Promoting Academic Excellence and Developing World Class Research Centers (to RBL).

Disclosure

The study was approved by the ethical committee of the National Cheng Kung University in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants before the experiment. For all authors, there is no actual or potential conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Long Cyuan Veterans Hospital, Pingtung, Taiwan

    Mu-En Liu

  2. Department of Psychiatry, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Yun-Hsuan Chang, Sheng-Yu Lee, Shiou-Lan Chen, Shih-Heng Chen, Chun-Hsien Chu & Ru-Band Lu

  3. Division of Clinical Psychology, Institute of Allied Health Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Yun-Hsuan Chang & Ru-Band Lu

  4. College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Yun-Hsuan Chang, Sheng-Yu Lee, Chih-Chung Huang & Ru-Band Lu

  5. Department of Nursing, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Yan-Chiou Ku

  6. Department of Psychiatry, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan

    Sheng-Yu Lee

  7. Department of Psychiatry, Yuli Veterans Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan

    Wen-Chien Liu

  8. Institute of Behavioral Medicine, College of Medicine and Hospital, National Cheng Kung University, 138 Sheng-Li Road, Tainan, 704, Taiwan

    Ru-Band Lu

  9. Institute of Allied Health Sciences, College of Medicine and Hospital, National Cheng Kung University, 138 Sheng-Li Road, Tainan, 704, Taiwan

    Ru-Band Lu

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  1. Mu-En Liu
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  9. Wen-Chien Liu
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Correspondence to Ru-Band Lu.

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Liu, ME., Chang, YH., Ku, YC. et al. Executive functions in elderly men. AGE 34, 59–66 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-011-9215-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-011-9215-7

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