Abstrait

Cognitive symptoms of depression and the concept of pseudodementia

Wang Liu

In the past, little or no attention was paid to cognitive disorders associated with depression. However, recent years have seen a growing interest in these changes, not only because of their high frequency in acute-stage depression, but also because they have been found to persist, as residual symptoms, in many patients who respond well to antidepressant treatment. These cognitive symptoms seem to impact significantly not only on patients’ functioning and quality of life, but also on the risk of recurrence of depression. Therefore, over the past decade, pharmacological research in this field has focused on the development of new agents able to counteract not only depressive symptoms, but also cognitive and functional ones.