The association of depression and quality of life in patients with neurocognitive disorder in a tertiary care center: An observational study

Abstract

Objective: Depression can be a psychological reaction of a patient toward the diagnosis of neurocognitive disorder, and it can be a part of the complex biological response involving both illnesses. Both depression and neurocognitive disorders can cause low quality of life (QoL), especially in the elderly population. In this present study, we intended to assess the association of depression and the QoL among patients suffering from mild to major neurocognitive disorder at a tertiary hospital. Methods: This observational study was carried out at the department of psychiatry in a tertiary care hospital, among 100 patients, whose diagnosis was made according to DSM-5 criteria for mild to major neurocognitive disorder. Patients were administered semi-structured pro forma for collection of sociodemographic data, Addenbrooke'sCognitive Examination III R, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) to assess the severity of mild and major neurocognitive disorders, Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia was administered to assess the depression, World Health Organization (WHO) QoL-BREF Scale to assess the QoL among patients with mild to major neurocognitive disorders. Results: The mean age ± standard deviation of the study population was 70.31 ± 6.9 years. The sum of 43.3% of the study population belonged to the category of mild cognitive impairment, 46.7% the moderate, and 10% the severe type of cognitive impairment. The sum of 29.2% of the study population had depressive episodes, and 6.7% of the study population belonged to the category of definite major depression. Domain 2 of WHO QoL-BREF was maximum affected by mild and major neurocognitive disorders (p < 0.001). Conclusion: This study found that majority of the patients with neurocognitive disorders was affected by higher levels of depressive scores with a remarkable decrease in their QoL. Compared to neurodegenerative disorders, depression is much easily been effectively treated, this study stresses the importance of the aggressive diagnosis and treatment for depression for all patients with neurocognitive disorder.