The neuropsychological performance of three age cohorts of depressed
patients (46-59, 60-69, and 70-85) was compared with the performance of
age-matched control subjects to determine whether advancing age potentiates
the effect of depression on cognition. Depression and increasing age did
not interact to produce more pronounced cognitive deterioration in our
unmedicated, medically healthy, well-educated outpatients diagnosed with
mild to moderate major depression. Test findings suggest that presence of
mild to moderate depression may result in premature "aging" of specific
cognitive abilities (such as nonverbal memory, word generation, and
categorization), but once the seventh decade is reached, cognition in
depressed and nondepressed individuals appears to be comparable.Abstract Teaser