Retrieval from semantic memory using meaningful and meaningless constructs by depressed, stable bipolar and manic patients

Abstract

Eleven depressed, 11 stable bipolar and six manic patients, 20 normals and eight late middle-age normals were tested for speech production using a word-fluency task. Fluency was prompted by either a letter (a relatively automatic task), or a semantic category (an effort-demanding task). The results showed that depressed patients were more impaired in speech production than other patients when prompted by a semantic category than when prompted by a letter. A post hoc matched-tasks check suggested that this finding was not due to differences in discriminating power between the two word-fluency tasks. Manic and stable bipolar patients did not differ in their speech production, although matched on age. The results suggest that depressives perform better on more automatic than on effort-demanding tasks, and that manic and stable bipolar patients do not differ in speech production when experimentally imposed restrictions are present.

Neuropsychological Performance in Depressed and Euthymic Bipolar Patients

“…Non-psychotic affective patients, either bipolar or unipolar, did not differ significantly from normal controls in verbal fluency when explored during their first episode [27]. Calev et al [17] also found that stable bipolar patients performed almost as well as normal control subjects, whereas depressed patients performed worse, suggesting that the severity of mood state may affect cognition. On the other hand, patients with bipolar disorder who are depressed [23,28] or relatively asymptomatic [19,29] have been found to produce fewer words than controls on a speeded verbal fluency task.…”

“…Both studies suggested that there were no deficits in the number of words, but patients produced incorrect responses which were more likely to be related to difficulties in following instructions, among other reasons. Recently, verbal fluency has been found to be impaired in mania compared with normal controls [25], whereas the previous literature had not documented a verbal fluency dysfunction in this state [17,26]. Nevertheless, bipolar patients have been found to be more impaired on verbal fluency in the FAS compared with unipolar patients during a depressive episode, suggesting an impairment of frontal lobe functions in bipolar disorder [18].…”

“…However, cognitive functioning has been scarcely evaluated during euthymic periods of the illness. There are few studies which have evaluated remitted bipolar patients, and there are discrepancies 17 among them with regard to remission criteria, which make comparisons difficult. In a recent literature review, Murphy and Sahakian [1] suggest that there is evidence of residual neuropsychological impairments in euthymia, but methodological problems often weaken the conclusions drawn from neuropsychological studies in bipolar disorder.…”

A Comparison of Cognitive Impairments in Dementia of the Alzheimer Type and Depression in the Elderly

“…animal names) [15], Impaired verbal fluency amongst DAT patients has been found in a number of recent studies [10,15,16]. Unipolar depressed subjects produced as many words as controls when given an initial letter [ 17,18] or a semantic category task [ 17). While it has been inferred that the verbal fluency task would differentiate between depressed and demented pa tients [2], direct comparisons of such groups on word fluency have not been performed.…”

A verbális fluencia és a munkamemória életkori változásai és szerepük az iskolai teljesítményben

“…Újabban a teljesítménymutatók kiegészültek a klaszterek (különböző szabályok alapján alkotott minimum kételemű csoportok) számával (Troyer és mtsai, 1997;Troyer, 2000) (Temple és mtsai, 1996) és a diszlexiát is (Bunn, 1995;Decker, 1989;Levin, 1990). Szintén hasznos mérőeljárásnak bizonyultak az idősebb populáció esetében is, mivel jól használhatóak többek között a demenciában szenvedő betegek elkülönítésében az egészséges személyektől (Bentham, 1997;Crossley, 1997;Diesfeldt, 1985; Salmon és mtsai, 1995; Solomon és mtsai, 1998), a különböző típusú demenciák differenciálásában (Rosser és Hodges, 1994;Caramelli és mtsai, 2007) (Tarbuck és Paykel, 1995;Calev, Nigal és Chazan, 1989;Fossati, Amar, Raoux, Ergis, és Allilaire, 1999;Geffen, Bate, Wright, Rosenbilds, és Geffen, 1993 Williams-szindrómás betegeknél a verbális és téri képességek disszociatív sérülése figyelhető meg (Vicari, Bellucci és Carlesimo, 2003;Lanfranchi, Cornoldi és Vianello, 2004).…”