Study Of Cognitive Function Impairment And Stigma In Adolescent Patients With Depression

Objective: To explore the existence of cognitive function impairment in adolescent patients with depression and related factors; Investigate the stigma in patients with depression.Method: To assess the cognitive function including learning and memory,attention/vigilance, speed of processing and executive function of adolescent patients with depression with the Stroop Test, Continuous Performance Test(CPT), Trail Making Test(TMT) and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST), then compare with the normal adolescents. To investigate the stigma situation with the Link Stigma Scale and Struening Belittle Scale.Results: ① There were significant differences in scores of Stroop Test[Word(70.67±18.54)vs(110.11±19.35),t=-8.831,p=0.000;Colour(47.97±13.76)vs(77.81±11.89),t=-9.845,p=0.000;Word-Colour(29.08±8.34)vs(45.39±11.10), t=-7.046, p=0.000], CPT[CPT2(2.14±1.02)vs(3.56±0.58), t=-7.304, p=0.000;CPT3(1.68±0.92)vs(3.12±0.63),t=-7.734,p=0.000;CPT4(0.87±0.68)vs(2.21±0.85),t=-7.311,p=0.000] and TMT[(46.56±16.25)vs(26.54±6.62), t=6.845, p=0.000]between two groups; Significant differences were also shown in scores of WCST[Cc(5.25±1.44)vs(5.94±0.23),t=-2.853,p=0.007;Re(27.31±16.44)vs(16.33±11.06),t=3.323,p=0.002;Rpe(18.78±13.86)vs(11.36±10.12),t=2.592,p=0.020].Age, history, recurrence, gender factor and the level of education had a certain correlation with cognitive function(p<0.05). ② A comprehensive compare of public stigma between depression and diabetes showed that about 89.0% of the public with stigma for the patients with depression and about 32.0% of thepublic with stigma for the patients with diabetes. There were significant differences in frequency of public stigma for two diseases( χ2=744.906,P=0.0013); The frequency of stigma in the caregivers of patients with depression and schizophrenia was significantly higher than that in diabetescaregivers(χ2=141.756, P=0.0016; χ2=167.895, P=0.0008). There were significant differences in the total scores of Link Perceived Devaluationdiscrimination and Struening Belittle Scale between psychiatric medical workers and non-psychiatric medical workers(t=2.448,P=0.003;t=2.467,P=0.001).Conclusion: ①There was a wide range of cognitive function impairments in adolescent patients with depression, including learning and memory,attention/vigilance, speed of processing and executive function. The related factors of cognitive impairment were age, history, recurrence and level of education. ② The stigma in patients with depression is widespread, people involved in multiple layers, including public, caregivers and medical workers.