What are the cognitive symptoms of depression?

The cognitive symptoms of depression include reduced attention, impaired memory, slowed processing, poor decision‑making, and difficulties with planning and vocabulary use, which can disrupt work, studies, and daily activities.

How does depression affect attention?

Depression commonly causes difficulty maintaining sustained attention and concentrating on tasks that require effort and complex information processing.

Does depression cause memory problems?

People with depression often experience trouble recalling both short‑term and long‑term information, impairing everyday memory and learning abilities.

Which executive functions are impaired in depression?

Executive function impairments in depression can include difficulties with planning, working memory, decision‑making, organization, monitoring, and goal‑directed behavior.

How common are cognitive symptoms during and between depressive episodes?

Cognitive symptoms occur in more than 80% of patients during depressive episodes and persist in over 40% of patients between episodes.

Can cognitive rehabilitation help people with depression?

Professional assessment and targeted cognitive rehabilitation or neurorehabilitation programs can help improve attention, memory, and executive functions in individuals with depression.

The symptoms of depression from a cognitive perspective

Today, January 13, is World Day of the Fight Against Depression, a disorder that affects millions of people and has intensified during the pandemic. At NeuronUP we analyze the cognitive symptoms of depression so that people who suffer from it seek help and can begin a neurorehabilitation program.

The cognitive symptoms of depression

We usually associate depression with emotional symptoms such as: sadness, loss of interest in activities that used to be appealing, indifference, discouragement, insomnia. But the truth is that these are not the only problems people face. People who suffer from depression often experience difficulties concentrating, carrying out their daily tasks and memory loss. And depression is associated with a decline in cognitive functions such as attention, concentration, memory, decision-making ability, planning, vocabulary use…

These symptoms have very negative consequences. People with depression are not able to perform their professional duties correctly, to succeed in their studies, or to carry out their activities of daily living normally.

During a depressive episode patients experience cognitive symptoms more than 80% of the time and more than 40% of the time between episodes.

Cognitive deficits:

Attention

Patients with depression have difficulty maintaining attention when performing tasks that require sustained effort and information processing.

Memory

People with this disorder have difficulties remembering both short- and long-term information.

Executive functions

Executive functions are complex mental activities necessary to plan, organize, guide, monitor, regulate and evaluate the behavior necessary to adapt effectively to the environment and to achieve goals (Bauermeister, 2008). People with depression show different impairments in executive functions such as planning, working memory or decision-making.

Raising awareness

It is vital to be aware that depression has cognitive consequences. Therefore, it is necessary for people with this disorder to see a professional to undergo cognitive rehabilitation programs focused on improving attention, memory and executive functions.