Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology (Jul 2019)

Executive functions and impulsivity in suicide attempter adolescents with major depressive disorder

  • Merve Onat,
  • Neslihan İnal Emiroğlu,
  • Burak Baykara,
  • Ayşegül Özerdem,
  • Gonca Özyurt,
  • Yusuf Öztürk,
  • Ümit Şahin,
  • Ayşegül Ildız,
  • Berrin Kaptancık Bilgiç,
  • Ceren Hıdıroğlu Ongun,
  • Aynur Pekcanlar Akay

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/24750573.2018.1541647
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 29, no. 3
pp. 332 – 339

Abstract

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OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between executive functions and suicidality in terms of impulsivity and depression severity. METHODS: Depressed adolescents who have made a suicide attempt in the last year (n = 32), depressed adolescents without a suicide attempt (n = 30), and healthy controls (n = 30) participated in the study in Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Clinical diagnoses were made according to the DSM-IV by applying Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL). Data were collected by using a sociodemographic data form, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, and the Children’s Depression Rating Scale – Revised (CDRS-R). To evaluate all participants’ intelligence scores, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) was applied for adolescents aged under 16 years, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) was applied to adolescents aged 16–18 years. To determine the performance-based executive functions, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Stroop Test were applied to all participants. RESULTS: In this study, the participants who had made a suicide attempt displayed lower performance in the Stroop Test, especially in part 1 and part 4 compared with the controls (p = .04 and p = .011). Depressive patients also exhibited lower performance in the Stroop Test in part 3 compared with the controls (p = .049). Impulsivity was found more severe in depressive patients compared with controls (p < .001). There were no statistically significant differences between depressive patients with or without suicide attempt in terms of depression severity. CONCLUSION: Executive dysfunction appears to be associated with suicidal behaviour in adolescents with the major depressive disorder. This findings need to be replicated with a larger sample size in the future.

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